Back Male Widowskimmer Insects are important to the maintenance of prairie ecosystems. They are responsible for the pollination of prairie plants and also play a role in the nutrient cycling. They consume living and dead vegetation, manure, and dead animals, thereby hastening decomposition. This in turn, results in a quicker return of carbon and mineral nutrients to the soil where they become available to plants.
Insects are also a food source for a wide variety of prairie animals.
Some insects require specific plants that grow at Midewin NTP for food or the completion of their life cycle. The larvae of skippers, moth-like butterflies, feed almost entirely on sedges and grasses. Many of the butterflies and moths that inhabit the prairie are specialized pollinators and responsible for the cross-pollination of prairie plants that would not otherwise reproduce. They pollinate many of the plants in the Asteraceae which include coneflowers, sunflowers, and black-eyed Susans. A wide variety of animals at Midewin depend on insects either as a major food source or as supplementary to their diet.