Humanity is facing the Anthropocene, an Epoch characterized by unprecedented changes on earth systems, a global climate crisis, unsustainable land use and biodiversity loss, imposing great challenges to conservation and human well-being. Urbanization is a major driving force of land use change and its effects on ecological communities are likely to increase as urban areas replace natural areas worldwide. Insects are major components in terrestrial ecosystems, involved in mutualistic and antagonistic interactions with plants, contributing to key ecosystem services. Recent studies have shown that insect richness and abundance diminish in the cities worldwide, posing a risk to the provision of ecosystem services such as pollination and nutrient cycling. Data for tropical areas are yet incipient, impairing general conclusions of the role of cities in insect biodiversity. Using gradients of urbanization, we present data on (1) patterns of biodiversity for butterflies, ants, bees, and beetles in tropical cities, (2) experimental assessments of the provision of ecosystem services such as pollination in green areas, and (3) the potential of green urban areas under different regime managements as refuges for biodiversity. Our review highlights a general decrease in insect richness with urbanization and identifies several gaps in the understanding of urban green spaces as potential areas for the maintenance of ecosystem services in the cities.