Does mankind have intrinsic value? And my direct answer to your direct question yes, insects have more intrinsic "value" for the ecosystem of this planet compared to humans, one of the first proofs is the fact that they've been in here for longer than we (or even the mammals) have.
I hate arguments from nature. We’re not doing anything out of the ordinary compared to insects. If you transplant a species of insects like say the emerald ash borer they can be just as destructive to the ecosystem as humans, probably more so because they can’t reason about their behaviour and decide to change it to avoid ecological disaster. The history of the world is full of extinctions, the benefit of being human is we can choose not to act like any other invasive species or new mutation, we can choose the path that allows for human flourishing along with good stewardship of the planet. The best thing for both would probably be to accelerate our move off of this world and only come back for vacations and to prevent the odd “natural” extinction event.
Nobody is here longer than anybody, we are all part of the same unbroken genetic chain
Humanity has value to humanity, value to life as a whole is determined by which species survive to carry on, if insects dont then they werent all that valuable
