The determinants of population variability across taxa, time, and space are not fully understood, particularly for insects, a group with recent reports of widespread abundance declines. We collated data from unpublished and published sources to calculate indices of interannual population variability for over 4500 unique insect time series, comprising data from nearly 1500 species. We evaluate whether insects exhibit greater po...

Urbanization can alter all types of ecological interactions, including parasitism. For urban-associated hosts, two hypotheses predict the response of parasites to urbanization: dense host populations can increase disease transmission, and/or healthy host populations can increase immunity against disease. Using a historical record of bird specimens, we examined the effect of historical urban environments on parasitic interactio...