## 1 Introduction  
Multiple reports demonstrate that the destruction of natural habitats and pollution from human activity, largely a result of land clearing for agriculture and climate change, have led to substantial global biodiversity loss and mass extinction [1, 2, 3, 4]. Threats to biodiversity are also threats to all life on earth, including humans [5, 6, 7]. With historic levels of biodiversity loss and an increasing human population, it is critical to reduce the consumption of natural resources from earth and its cosphere. The UN expects the human population to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050 [8], and food demand is projected to increase up to 62% [9]. Climate change, reduced productivity of agricultural lands, overfishing, dwindling freshwater, pollution from fertilizers and pesticides, and a host of other factors resulting from population increase will place a disproportionate burden on Earth's cosphere. Population increases and scarcity of natural resources and food will lead to conflict around the world [10]. Nearly half of land on earth is used for agriculture, and at least 70% of agricultural land (30% of the land on earth) is used for livestock [11; 12; 13; 10]. Global market demand for protein is projected to increase to $32.56 billion by 2028 [14]. Unfortunately, expanding the amount of land used for livestock production is neither feasible nor sustainable.  
The value of insects to life on earth, including humans, cannot be overstated [15; 16]. Insects provide critical ecological services, including pollination and nutrient cycling, which support practically all life on earth [16; 17; 18; 19; 20]. Not only do insects provide important functions for the natural world, they also are a nearly entirely untapped bioresource for humans. Insects contain a wealth of chemical biodiversity [16; 21; 22]. For example, insects are a promising source of high-quality protein, as well as oils, chitin nutrients, and other bioproducts with a substantially lower environmental footprint than other livestock [23; 24]. Utilization of insects in food in place of less sustainable protein sources, such as vertebrate livestock, will significantly reduce the human impact on the environment, including biodiversity loss, climate change, and clean water depletion.  
In the past decade, an insect-based food and feed industry has emerged [25; 26]. This industry began based on the mass production of crickets, particularly _Acheta domesticus_ (house cricket) and _Gryllodes sigillatus_ (banded cricket) for human food [23; 27]. As of 2012, at least 2000 tons of crickets were produced annually in the US [25; 28]. While eating insects has been promoted in the past [29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35], this new industry offers long term-term solutions. By 2027, the edible insect market is projected to reach $4.63 billion, increasing 26.5% per year [36]. Major investments of as much as $400 million for a single insect farming company have been made [37; 38; 39]. These are some of the largest agricultural investments in the world. Mass produced insects can contribute positively to sustainable human existence but require the development of genetic resources [40; 41]. Insect genomes are critical to all fields of biological science, from medicine to agriculture and conservation [42]. _Drosophila melanogaster_ was one of the first model organisms with a reference genome assembly [43]. Not only is sequencing more affordable, improvements in long read length and accuracy as well as scaffolding technology have resulted in near complete genome assemblies, often assembled to chromosomal level [44; 45; 46]. Food and agricultural systems have benefitted from sequencing, with genetic engineering of crops playing a critical role [47]. The short lifespan and high fecundity of insects offers an opportunity to incorporate genetic modifications rapidly with higher success rates than with larger animals and many plant crops, producing not only food but bioproduction of other valuable materials, such as vaccine antigens.