All language subtitles for David.Attenborough.Micro.Monsters.S01E01.Conflict.2160p.NOW.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.265-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Our world is not always the same.

Hidden from our view lies a
different world.

Creatures utterly unlike us.

Almost alien.

Yet they are more numerous
than any other group on the planet.

Welcome to the fascinating
world of the arthropods.

Spiders, scorpions and insects.

Today we have new camera techniques

that will allow us to reveal in
greater detail

than ever before their lives.

The way they fight and feed and
reproduce.

This series uses specially developed
3D camera technology

to study the micro world in
extraordinary detail,

both on location and in specially
constructed environments.

We'll witness their births, the
challenges they face,

and the moments when their lives
hang in the balance.

And that may help us understand
how it is that today

over 80% of all animal species on
this planet are arthropods.

In this series we will see the way
they have evolved.

From the comparative simplicity of
the millipede,

to vast colonies that contain
hundreds, even millions,

of individuals.

We'll witness the most extraordinary
transformations

in the animal kingdom.

We'll meet ants that farm,

spiders that can cast their webs...

...and the bug that wears the bodies
of its victims as a disguise.

Welcome to a strange
and dangerous world.

Our planet's rainforests are home to
millions of animal species.

Nearly 90% of them are arthropods,
some call them bugs,

and they're all searching for food.

In fact, there's food for most of
them everywhere,

because over half
of all bugs eat plants.

Millipedes were among the first
arthropods to move up

out of the water onto the land.

They can have up to 750 legs,

grow to lengths of 30 centimetres
and live for as long as seven years.

And this body plan is so efficient

that it's remained largely unchanged
for hundreds of millions of years.

Their body is divided into segments,
each with its own set of legs

and internal organs.

A heart runs
the entire length of it,

supplying each segment with oxygen.

It eats decaying leaves and plants,

just as its ancestors did
over 400 million years ago.

Millipedes are peaceful creatures,

but they don't have
the forest to themselves.

There are other multi-segmented
creatures here

that have a very different
way of life.

Centipedes.

They are meat eaters.

Centipedes are closely
related to millipedes,

and they prey on other bugs.

There are over 8,000
species of them,

and they all have poisonous stings.

This one lives in caves in India.

Their powerful, independently
moving legs

make them much faster than
millipedes.

This is the one to be feared most -

meet Scolapendra.

But it's not the only top
predator here.

This Red Claw Scorpion from Tanzania

is not as fast or as agile,

but its powerful pincers and sting

make it every bit as deadly.

Scorpions and centipedes are
competitors.

They hunt the same prey...

...and in the same territory.

And because of that,

if they meet, they fight.

Scolapendra uses all its strength

to try and get under
Red Claw's armour.

But the scorpion's defences
are too strong.

It's not Red Claw's attack
that wins the day,

it's Scolapendra's weak
defence that loses it.

If you can't defend yourself,

you're not likely to stay alive
for long in the micro-world.

Australia.

Home to a beetle with one of the
oddest defences.

This is a pie dish beetle.

The outback certainly gets very dry,

so you might think
that this strange shell

is just for collecting water,

but its primary function is defence.

A Mantis.

Normally a hunter,
but with this potential prey,

it doesn't know how to even begin.

But the pie dish beetle's armour

does have its disadvantages -

it's not what you
might call manoeuvrable.

Other Australian insects have a
different defensive strategy.

This stick insect relies on
camouflage to make it invisible,

but that too comes at a cost.

Being shaped like a stick
makes it difficult to fly.

So if a predator does find it,
it could be done for.

A huntsman spider -
and it's ready to strike.

It's one of the fastest
and most agile of all spiders.

But the stick insect
doesn't even try to escape.

She has a weapon of last resort.

A milky substance
from the glands behind her head.

The spray can reach half a metre,

and she'll have enough to have
a few goes before running dry.

It fills the forest with
the scent of peppermint.

To the huntsman,
it's an unbearable irritant.

So the stick insect is free
to graze in peace.

Ever since they first appeared
on land,

the arthropods have been fighting
one and other -

over food, over territory,
over a mate.

The ways they have developed
in order to do so

are truly astonishing.

On the floor of forests almost
anywhere in the world,

you'll find these -

bombardier beetles.

They look fairly harmless,

but not many creatures are foolhardy
enough to try and eat them.

A mantis.

Some mantises are so large
and strong,

they can even kill small birds.

A beetle should be easy.

But not this one.

A fraction of a second after
the mantis strikes,

the beetle squirts hot gas
and caustic chemicals in its face.

The chemicals are produced
by a reaction in its abdomen,

which generates enough heat to bring
the liquid close to boiling point.

The bombardier's spray can be
deadly to smaller creatures...

...but the mantis is large
and it survives.

As does the beetle.

On the African savannah,

there's a hunter that sets its traps

wherever there is dust or dry sand.

This is the lava of an ant-lion.

As an adult, it will look
something like a dragonfly,

and then its sole purpose
will be to mate.

It'll barely even eat.

But now as a larva,
its task is to feed and grow.

To do that, it digs a pit trap
in the sand,

and buries itself at the bottom,
jaws uppermost.

It can jerk its head so violently

that it can shoot up sand grains
like bullets.

And now it waits.

An ant wanders into the pit...

...and loses its foothold.

The ant can't climb out.

The sand slips from under its feet.

Eventually, it tires.

And the ant-lion drags
it beneath the sand...

and devours it.

For the ant-lion, remaining hidden
is a good way to hunt.

And there are a multitude
of places to do that

in a forest.

Here there are predators
that set perhaps the most

perfect of all ambushes.

This female trapdoor spider lives
in a burrow with a camouflaged lid.

And she'll stay here
for her entire 20-year life.

Around the burrow,

she's laid out a network
of invisibly fine strands of silk.

She'll pounce on anything
that trips on them.

Occasionally, she tests to see
that her door opens smoothly.

But mostly, she waits.

A cricket.

Got it.

She pulls her prey into the burrow -

so that she can eat it in safety
and at her leisure.

But some bugs have
such perfect camouflage

they're virtually invisible,

even though they're totally exposed.

Predators use camouflage
to hunt their prey unseen.

Their victims use it to avoid
being found and eaten.

But disguise can be a potent weapon.

In the forests of East Africa,

one insect has taken its camouflage

to a bizarre and somewhat
gruesome extreme.

This is an assassin bug.

To us, it's easy enough to spot
because it moves.

To its prey, that's irrelevant

because it smells
like one of their number.

The assassin sucks its victims dry

and glues their empty
husks onto its back.

This one is already carrying
at least 20 corpses.

Its irregular shape makes it hard
for other predators to spot it...

...and makes it virtually invisible
to its prey - ants.

It enters this ant colony
unchallenged.

Its coat of ant corpses
masks its own odour.

To the ants, it smells
like one of their own,

and that's what matters.

They'll even run straight
over the top of it.

The assassin simply takes an ant
whenever it feels hungry.

And the body of each victim
then adds to its disguise.

Conflict pervades the bug world.

It shapes their bodies.

It dictates their lifestyles.

The ant-lions beneath the sand.

The trapdoor spiders -
20 years in a burrow.

And it's their extraordinary
diversity

that underpins their success.

In the next programme,
I'll look at arthropod predators.

These are the creatures that must
kill in order to eat.

They have evolved the most
extraordinary ways to do so.

And they take many forms.

We'll meet a spider that has
turned its web into a casting net.

We'll witness the ingenious hunting
tactics of another spider

that preys on its fellows.

We'll meet creatures that use
the surface of water

like a radar dish
to detect their prey.

And an extraordinary wasp
that tames a cockroach

so her young can eat it alive.

We'll encounter the most deadly
creatures of the micro-world.

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