Original subtitles

[theme music plays]

[Narrator] Ah, midsummer in

the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee.

It's insect mating season, and love is in the air.

Well, pheromones anyway.

But a bug's life is short.

The chance to mate is fleeting,

especially for this enchanting little

woodland creature.

Strange, mysterious,

and fluffy.

Meet the forest's youngest luna moth.

Fresh from his cocoon, there's a whole new world to explore.

But, like most young adults,

there is only one thing on his mind.

Find a mate and pass on his adorable little genes.

Not easy, when you're a little on the clumsy side.

[comedic whistling]

[crashing]

Your wings haven't opened yet.

Oh, and you only have a week to live.

For most forest bugs, finding a partner is

a race against the clock.

This is a tale of tiny romantics facing down huge odds,

in a deep dark wood, full of obstacles and danger.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

As the sun sets over the forest, the search begins.

But finding a mate in a darkening world takes a

very special set of skills.

This little love bug is desperate to be noticed.

After spending a whole year as a grub, hidden underground,

who wouldn't be?

Now he's an adult, he only has a few short weeks to pair up.

He's handsome, sure.

But just the size of a pumpkin seed, he's easy to miss.

Until he turns on the charm.

He's a firefly, one of thousands of males

flashing their butts off.

Mixing chemicals in his tail sparks that firefly magic.

One of the most energy-efficient light sources

on the planet.

More than 30 species of firefly live here

in the Smoky Mountains,

each with their own secret language of flashes.

Some blink slow and steady, others twinkle rapidly.

And our guy's signature move?

Dip down low, then rise with a glorious glow.

Over at the tree line, he's caught someone's attention.

A gorgeous female firefly, flashing at him?

Yeah, she's flirting with him, shamelessly.

And oh boy, is he flirting back.

Using his best pick-up lines to seal the deal.

His whole life has been leading him to a lady

just like her.

[♪ horror music]

Yep, she's eating him.

'Cause this isn't his story, it's hers.

Twice his size,

she's a totally different species of firefly.

A man-eater, mimicking his language.

Luring love-sick males to their death is her specialty.

It's why she's known as the "femme fatale" of the forest.

Already pregnant, she's eating for 50.

And the more victims she devours tonight,

the stronger her babies will be.

If you're a male, and your butt lights up,

she's coming for you!

If only everyone can move through the forest

this gracefully.

Still stuck in the undergrowth,

the little luna moth is flightless and vulnerable.

Best not draw any attention.

[creaking]

[crashing]

In these woods, monsters are everywhere.

A hungry mouse right on his tail.

Climb, just keep climbing,

climb like your life depends on it,

because it does.

But until his wings open, he's a sitting bug.

[rustling]

Huh?

[boom]

Who?

What's that?

Look, if you were the size of a ping pong ball,

you'd be scared too.

'Sup, Bambi?

Danger may have passed, but his heart beats faster.

It's the final part of his transformation,

pumping fluid into his wings.

He's got to wait for them to harden before he can fly.

Then, somehow, he must find a mate

through miles of darkness.

By night, the dense, humid forest becomes the perfect

breeding ground for more than 10,000 species of insect.

Many spend years growing in larval form,

but have only weeks, or even days, as adults.

This way, parents and children don't have to fight over food.

But it doesn't leave much time to find love.

So bugs have come up with all kinds of ways to be

as attractive as possible.

Some are singers...

[chirping]

some are dancers,

and some are fighters.

Like the mighty stag beetle.

His game plan?

Find a food source females love,

like this oozing oak tree

with a sugary open wound above.

Then prove himself by defending it against other males.

He spent his first two years of life as a defenseless grub,

but just look at him now.

A knight in shining armor, with just a few weeks of

adult life to fight for a queen.

Up ahead, his first opponent.

Time to show the forest what he's made of.

Our hero quickly takes the higher ground,

the perfect position to... oh, oh dear.

Oh no.

Lucky no females were around to see that.

Anyway, one small defeat won't hold

this headstrong beetle back.

Time to go pick another fight.

[owl hooting]

[Narrator] The luna moth's quest for love hasn't even

taken off yet.

He's still waiting for his wings to harden.

It happens to all moths, trust me.

In his previous life as a caterpillar, he munched leaves

non-stop for six weeks,

building up energy for his adult adventures.

But now he's all grown up.

He doesn't even have a mouth.

No way to top up his fuel reserves.

With every move he wastes more energy.

[sniffing]

The hungry mouse is back.

And those wings still ain't ready.

[♪ tense music]

[♪ horror music]

Try as he might, little legs are no match for sharp claws.

But his wings are covered in thousands of

tiny slippery scales.

Even the mightiest mouse can't get a grip.

Evolution won this battle for him.

He's a lover not a fighter.

Well, that's the plan anyway.

[squeaking]

Somewhere out there a female is releasing a mere

billionth of a gram of pheromone,

and it smells great.

His ultra-sensitive antennae detect her alluring scent

from far across the forest.

A breadcrumb trail leading him on his very first flight.

Ah, the moonlight.

The wind flying through the hair on your thorax.

And the perfect tree for a rest.

He's gonna need it.

His fuel reserves are running low,

and he's still a long way from finding his female.

In the bug dating game, putting yourself out there

can be a risky strategy.

Good times for insects means good times for predators, too.

But one flavor of bug here is strictly off the menu.

Our old friends, the fireflies.

Toxins in their blood make them taste disgusting

to most predators.

[ribbit]

But our femme fatale firefly isn't most predators.

She needs these protective toxins

to pass on to her babies.

She can't make them herself, so she has to steal them.

The more firefly she devours,

the better protected her babies will be.

Tonight, her man-eating mission continues

deeper in the forest.

The stag beetle has picked himself up

after losing his first fight,

determined to find another feeding ground to fight over.

And he might just have hit the jackpot.

His antennae have led him to an old tree stump.

To stag beetles, this is heaven.

It's damp, rotting and it stinks.

So, naturally, anyone who's anyone in bug society is here,

and there's a very good reason it's so crowded.

Giddy-up cowbug.

[laughs].

Sorry.

Before it died, this oak spent 100 summers catching rays of

sun and turning them into sugars.

Now, fungi break the wood down and turn the stump into

mushy bug baby food.

Beetle larvae spend years eating the sugary pulp,

so it's the perfect place for a female stag to lay her eggs.

[owl hooting]

And what do you know?

Up above, a female is waiting for a handsome male,

and she's not so bad herself.

The unmistakable look of love,

and the sound of trouble.

Another male stag standing between him and his queen.

With just a few weeks left to live,

he can't afford to keep losing fights.

Only winners get the girl.

I mean it's old fashioned, but, like, who am I to judge?

Midnight is approaching and the Smoky Mountains seem

so peaceful from above.

But below the canopy, it's love and death.

Our femme fatale firefly needs more kills before sunrise.

More protective toxins for her unborn babies.

In the dead of night, she's discovered new prey.

Smoky Mountain synchronous fireflies.

Thousands of males flash in unison and, in the brief

moments of darkness, they wait for females to reply.

How this species coordinates is still a mystery,

especially to our femme fatale.

She can't quite mimic their language,

so these males aren't falling into her trap.

But they are falling into someone else's.

An Orb-weaver spider,

with a web full of careless male fireflies.

All that food in one place,

surely she wouldn't steal a meal from

another firefly killer?

But she's one fearless mama,

the meanest, baddest, biggest bug in the forest.

Well, biggest firefly at least.

Head first into a spider's web.

The spider is only inches above.

Just don't trigger the tripwires.

[♪ anticipatory music]

[string plucked]

I said not to trigger the tripwire!

[♪ intense music]

Tied up in spider silk,

a bug's worst nightmare.

Her life, and her babies' lives, hanging in the balance.

But twice the size of the trapped males,

she's still got a fighting chance.

[♪ intense dramatic music]

[♪ intense dramatic music]

Escaped, and with a free bug burrito.

This supermom-to-be will do anything

for the sake of her bloodline.

And the stag beetle is ready to go to war over his.

Two horny males,

one picky female.

Our guy's the one on the left, by the way.

This may be his last chance to win a mate.

[horns clacking]

Stag beetle fights can last almost a minute.

In a bug's life, that's, like, forever.

He's trapped in a headlock.

But he escapes,

and lifts his challenger in a vice-grip of his own.

Bench pressing his own bodyweight with his mouth,

giving him the edge to throw him off.

[crashing]

How unfortunate.

[♪ victorious herald]

Looks like date night is back on.

It's love at first pheromone exchange.

And it's not just the stag beetle.

On midsummer nights like this, the forest is crawling with

little love bugs of every shape, size and pronoun.

Slugs are hermaphrodites, so they can fertilize themselves.

But most of us can agree

mating is a lot more fun with a partner.

Just ask the weevils.

Through sheer determination,

the stag beetle has won his queen.

And all across the forest,

bugs are making the most out of their brief affairs.

In the dying hours of the night,

the long reproductive organs of slugs

coiling around each other look strangely beautiful.

Tonight, romance is in the air.

Until you get dumped.

It seems like everyone in the forest is getting lucky,

apart from the luna moth.

He's so tired from flying all night,

he's letting the other bugs walk all over him.

Oh, I hate it when that happens!

He's running on empty.

His body is battered, but his heart is beating strong.

It's racing, because his antennae tell him

his female is close.

And he's buzzing with excitement.

Well, sort of.

Shivering warms up his wing muscles,

just enough energy to rev up one last time.

Take to the air and go find her!

[♪ dramatic music]

Before something else finds him.

A big brown bat can see in the dark,

[clicking]

using sonar to pinpoint its prey.

[clicking]

The moth has no clue that death is on his tail.

[♪ intense dramatic music]

But this was no lucky escape.

It's the moth's tail that saved him.

Its swirling shape scrambles the bat's sonar.

With wings like these, who cares if you're clumsy?

Traveling miles through the forest has taken its toll.

[crashing]

He's totally out of fuel,

but this is the best crash landing he could have hoped for.

The pheromone trail has led him to a female.

With his very last scrap of energy, he climbs to her.

Once they've mated, she'll carry all 400 of their eggs.

The tiny woodland romantics of the future.

[birds chirping]

Bugs have the most extraordinary ways of

passing on their small, but mighty, genes.

The firefly's violent rampage has paid off.

With only days left to live,

she's laying her tiny toxic eggs,

ensuring her lethal lineage will continue.

As for the luna moth, his job is done, too.

Against all odds.

Only 1% of his species ever get to mate.

So, he made the most of his short life.

[♪ dramatic music]

Every scrape, battle and crash landing was worth it.

His adorable legacy will live on,

right across the forest.

[music plays through credits]

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.