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Our world is not always the same.

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Hidden from our view

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lies a different world.

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Creatures utterly unlike us.

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THUNDER RUMBLES

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Almost alien.

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Yet they are more numerous

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than any other group on the planet.

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Welcome to the fascinating world
of the arthropods -

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spiders,

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scorpions

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and insects.

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Today we have new camera techniques

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that will allow us to reveal in
greater detail than ever before

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their lives.

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The way they fight and feed
and reproduce.

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This series uses specially developed
3D camera technology

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to study the micro world
in extraordinary detail,

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both on location and in specially
constructed environments.

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We'll witness their births,

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the challenges they face

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and the moments when their lives
hang in the balance.

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And that may help us understand
how it is that today

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

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In this series we'll see
the way they have evolved,

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from the comparative simplicity
of the millipede

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to vast colonies

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that contain hundreds, even
millions, of individuals.

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We'll witness the most
extraordinary transformations

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in the animal kingdom.

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We'll meet ants that farm,

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spiders that can cast their webs...

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

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Welcome to a strange
and dangerous world.

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The struggle for survival
amongst arthropods

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is often brutal

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but that's a key to their success -

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the strongest survive to produce
the next generation.

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The birth of offspring is not always
an end to parental responsibilities.

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Whilst most arthropods leave their
young to fend for themselves,

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a small minority look after them.

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They become families.

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And in the tropical forests
of Australia

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lives one of the most surprising.

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This is the giant
burrowing cockroach.

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It is one of the largest
cockroaches in the world.

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If you were to hold it, it would
fill the palm of your hand.

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Despite its appearance,
it isn't a pest.

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In fact, it's one of the most
useful insects in the forest.

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Australians call it the litter bug

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because it cleans up the forest
floor, eating leaves and detritus.

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This one is a female.

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She's pregnant and she's digging
a tunnel in order to create

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a safe place where she can
produce her young.

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Her tunnel is a metre deep,

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the equivalent of you or me
digging down more than 20 metres.

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And here she gives birth.

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Having done so, most insects
would leave,

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and their young would be left
to fend for themselves.

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But not her.

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She will care for her young
for months,

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keeping them moist and warm
under her shell.

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Occasionally, she'll return to the
surface to collect eucalyptus leaves

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for them to eat.

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This cockroach will live
for eight years or more.

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During that time, she will produce
around 150 young.

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And by caring for them for the first
six months of their lives,

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she ensures that every one of them
gets the best possible start.

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Eventually, they will leave the
nest, and begin life on their own.

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But some creatures have taken
social living a step further.

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Their youngsters never leave.

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The family stays together for life.

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This mass of white silk is home
to a very unusual spider.

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Spiders are usually solitary.

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But these spiders are different -

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they're social.

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They live in groups of up to 100

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and they are all related -

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brothers and sisters, parents,
uncles and aunts -

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all on the same web.

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They live side-by-side,
and hunt together.

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Here, too, the mothers care
for their young.

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Once these eggs have hatched,
she'll feed the spiderlings

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by regurgitating food until they're
old enough to hunt for themselves.

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For now, with so many spiders
guarding the web,

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it's safe for her to leave the eggs
in search of food.

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This mantis is far too large
for any single spider to attack.

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So instead, they collaborate.

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All the nearby spiders
help to hold it down.

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Even the smaller, young spiders
lend a hand.

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Eventually when their prey
is exhausted the spiders feed.

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It's not unusual for spiderlings
to eat the bodies of older spiders

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that have died in the web.

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In fact, in some species
of social spider,

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the mother always dies
when the spiderlings hatch

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and they feed on her corpse.

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So the generations pass,
and the family thrives.

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This vast web will persist
for perhaps five years,

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until eventually the family
moves on.

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By living together
as an extended family,

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and all looking out for each other,

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these social spiders have helped
guarantee their survival.

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But some insects have taken this
practice a stage further.

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Family members have begun
to specialise.

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In the rainforests of Australia,

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green ants live in groups
of up to half a million.

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But these communities
have small beginnings.

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This family consists of just
a few hundred ants.

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And they're searching for a place
to build their home.

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The family seems to have found
a suitable location.

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Now they can start construction.

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Climbing on each other's backs,

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the strongest ants
reach across the gaps...

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and pull the leaves together.

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Their nest will be made
by joining these leaves.

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But to do that, they need help from
the youngest members of the family -

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the larvae.

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These tiny white youngsters
are immobile,

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but they have a remarkable ability,

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which the worker ants have
the skills to stimulate.

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When the adult workers stroke them
with their antennae,

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the young larvae produce silk.

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The workers use the silk
to stitch the leaves together.

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Some workers pull the leaves
into position...

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...and the delicate silk weaving
continues.

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Finally, the nest is complete.

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It will provide a strong,
waterproof, safe home for the ants.

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But it serves an even more important
purpose, as home to their leader.

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Their queen.

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She is the mother
of the entire family,

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and the sole producer of young.

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Without her, the community
will fail.

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Arthropods typically produce
their young in huge numbers.

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Some look after their offspring,
and stay together as families.

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As these families grow in size,
they need organisation.

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And many have a central figure,
their mother.

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Their queen.

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Across Europe and North America

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there is an insect that starkly

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illustrates the process

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by which insect families
choose their queen.

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These are paper wasps,

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and they live in family groups
of no more than 80 individuals.

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The small size of the group
makes them easy to observe.

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And shows that the queen
is constantly under threat

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from her daughters.

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The queen's role is to lay eggs

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and keep her unruly daughters
in line.

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The daughters tend the young,

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their newly-born sisters.

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They clean them.

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And water them.

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They even chop up their food
for them...

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...and feed it to them
piece by piece.

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And the queen constantly bullies
her daughters

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to make sure they do their job.

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But in this small family the role
of queen is not fixed.

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And deciding who is queen
is settled by aggression.

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These tests of strength
have a purpose.

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The strongest will become the queen.

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To avoid unnecessary fights

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the wasps have evolved the ability
to recognise each other by smell.

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Some have even learned to recognise
faces, much like humans.

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This enables them to constantly
keep track of who has beaten whom,

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maintaining this uneasy truce.

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But the system only works because
the family is so small.

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Just a few more wasps,

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and the queen would no longer
be able to fight them all.

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Bumblebees have found a way around
this obstacle.

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Instead of dominating
by brute force,

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their queen controls her family
with chemicals.

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Bumblebees are able to live
in larger families of about 300.

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The majority are workers,

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who collect nectar and pollen
to feed the rest of the family.

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And this is their queen.

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Her swollen abdomen is full of eggs.

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She alone lays...

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...so she is the mother
of every bee in the family.

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To prevent competition
from her offspring,

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she releases a chemical -
a pheromone -

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that renders the workers unwilling
to lay eggs themselves.

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Unable to produce larvae,

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these offspring become
the queen's workers,

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looking after the day-to-day
running of their home.

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They clean up the debris
at the bottom of the nest.

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And build and repair
the nest walls using wax.

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They fill and look after special
food stores called honey pots.

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They use this honey to feed new
larvae produced by their queen,

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their own sisters.

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And if any larvae aren't perfect,

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the workers will kill them.

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The queen's chemical control
of her family is total.

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But by the standard of some insect
families, this one is small.

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Bumblebees are found all over
the northern hemisphere,

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there are about 200 different
species of them.

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But pheromones released by the queen

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can only control a certain number of
individuals - 100 or so at the most.

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00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:01,039
To organise bigger colonies,

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00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:04,399
workers need to be able to send
messages to one another.

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00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:08,240
It's no longer about control,
it's about communication.

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In the rainforests of Africa,

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some insects live
in immense families.

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By solving the issue
of communication,

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their size has become
almost limitless.

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00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,760
These are driver ants.

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00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:41,759
With up to 50 million individuals,

207
00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:44,680
this is more than just a family.
It's a colony.

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The queen is the mother of them all.

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She is the only individual
that's able to reproduce.

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And the entire community,
in their millions,

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00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:04,320
exists purely in order
to support her.

212
00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:10,279
Like all of the simpler families
we've seen,

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00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,159
their success is built on hierarchy,

214
00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,720
and is made possible by
division of labour.

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00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,639
Every ant has a specific role,

216
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,479
whether it's tending to larvae,

217
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:25,519
guarding the nest,

218
00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,880
or guiding a column of its sisters
to a source of food.

219
00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:34,239
But the distance over which
they can operate

220
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:39,040
and the sheer size of the family -
is made possible by communication.

221
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:51,360
Communication is the key to making
a simple family a complex colony.

222
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,760
A collection of insects that is far
greater than the sum of its parts.

223
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:05,280
And capable of achieving feats equal
to those of far larger animals.

224
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:11,039
Of all the arthropod innovations,

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00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:16,119
the most revolutionary has been the
ability to live in immense colonies.

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00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:18,799
That has enabled them to hunt
en masse,

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00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,919
to build huge constructions
for their homes,

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00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:23,720
and to dominate their surroundings.

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00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:32,240
Next time, I want to look at this
pinnacle of arthropod achievement.

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00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:37,320
Vast colonies capable of shaping
the world around them.

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00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:42,679
Termites that build castles that,
on our scale,

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00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:44,480
would be two kilometres tall.

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00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:48,600
Bees that communicate by dancing.

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And the ants that farm fungus
on a grand scale.

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00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,119
These creatures are
individually tiny,

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00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:01,840
yet they live in colonies
that are truly immense.

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00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:06,600
And they act entirely as one.

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00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,840
Together they form a single
super-organism.

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Subtitles By Red Bee Media Ltd

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00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,960
accessibility@bskyb.com