- 1 day ago
Insects are the largest group of animals on Earth, making up over 90% of all animal life forms, the head has eyes, mouth, and two feelers called antennae used for smelling and touching, the middle section where six legs and wings attach and the back part that holds organs for digestion and breathing....
科学家估计，地球上几乎每一个栖息地都生活着数百万种不同的昆虫, 蚂蚁能举起重量可达自身体重50倍的物体, 家蝇每秒钟能扇动翅膀数百次.....已知种类超 100 万种（占动物界半数以上），从极地到高山、城市到雨林无处不在；起源早于人类约 4 亿年....
科学家估计，地球上几乎每一个栖息地都生活着数百万种不同的昆虫, 蚂蚁能举起重量可达自身体重50倍的物体, 家蝇每秒钟能扇动翅膀数百次.....已知种类超 100 万种（占动物界半数以上），从极地到高山、城市到雨林无处不在；起源早于人类约 4 亿年....
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00:02These touch-me-not balsam have sprung up to cover the woodland floor.
00:10Each night the leaves go limp as the balsam exudes any excess moisture.
00:16In the waterlogged soils of the Lake District this is a handy adaptation.
00:42Soon their blooms unfurl.
00:48As the petals of these strange shaped flowers drop off, seed pods begin to form.
01:00These pods are the favourite food of the netted carpet moth caterpillar.
01:13Although it was once thought to be extinct, the netted carpet moth survives here in the Lake District,
01:20its last remaining stronghold.
01:27Touch-me-not balsam is their only source of food.
01:32So, can you see those forestsتم by the Queen and the
02:04These plants have a surprise in store.
02:08Their seed heads explode.
02:15It's how they became known as touch me not.
02:19But nobody told the caterpillars this.
02:37The caterpillars have no warning when these little bombs go off.
02:45It's not just seeds that get hurled across the forest floor.
02:59The Namib Desert, one of the most exposed places on earth.
03:09As the sun climbs high, everybody takes cover from the extreme heat.
03:18Everybody except the hot rod ant.
03:28As others take refuge, their day is just beginning.
03:37Cleaning out the nest.
03:45The sand can reach a scorching 70 centigrade.
03:50The ants' long legs raise their bodies above the surface, where it's 10 degrees cooler.
04:00But if they stand still, they will fry.
04:06They must keep moving, or risk the same fate as their quarry, the creatures that have collapsed from heat stroke.
04:14Too deeply buried, but a good place to cool off.
04:21Foraging decisions must be fast.
04:24Too big?
04:28Perfect.
04:32Back to the nest, before they also die.
04:42But they strayed into a minefield.
04:50Each of these strange cone-shaped pits is a death trap.
05:00With a brutal predator at its center.
05:04Here lie antlion larvae.
05:08Tiny ambush predators with venom-filled pincers.
05:34Some ants manage to escape.
05:36But the antlion has other tricks.
05:40Flinging sand into the air, it creates an avalanche.
05:49In this cone of death, the walls are so angled that the sand slips beneath the ants' feet.
05:59As boulders rain from the sky, escape seems almost impossible.
06:24An oog pister beetle in South Africa.
06:28He hunts ants.
06:39Eating ants may give him more than just nourishment.
06:43He may get something else from them that helps him fight his enemies.
06:58The ants launch a counterattack and nip his ankles.
07:04But he simply kicks them out of the way.
07:17The valiant ants drive him off.
07:20Straight into real danger.
07:27A mongoose.
07:33It's inquisitive.
07:37But it's also wary of the uch pister.
07:41A black and white pattern is a warning signal.
07:45The beetle takes aim.
07:51And fires formic acid straight at the mongoose's eyes and mouth.
08:00The beetle probably collected this acid from the ants.
08:04It certainly makes the beetle itself very distasteful.
08:07And that, in turn, makes it worth mimicking.
08:10This defenseless little lizard carries the beetle's warning pattern.
08:16It also imitates the way the beetle runs.
08:23Not particularly well, it's true, but well enough to fool predators into thinking it just might be an acid-firing
08:30beetle.
08:41All kinds of insects have developed chemical weapons.
08:48A pair of Devil Rider stick insects.
08:54They fire bitter-tasting oils, terpenes.
09:04European wood ants under attack from a hungry crow.
09:09They fire the sort of acid that gives nettles their sting.
09:13So this is like one of us falling into a nettle patch.
09:26But the master of chemical warfare is the bombardier beetle.
09:32It can create a chemical reaction within its body so violent,
09:36that boiling caustic liquid explodes out of its abdomen.
09:49By pulsing the jet 500 times a second,
09:53it keeps its rear end just cool enough to prevent it being cooked.
10:03The tasked wetter is New Zealand's equivalent of a mouse.
10:13And a worthy snack for a foraging pig.
10:35With pigs snuffling close behind, there is only one place to go.
10:41And it's the last place you would expect.
10:44총 3rd.
11:34This weather is an escape artist.
11:42The pigs can't see or smell him when he's under water.
12:07He can stay under for up to ten minutes.
12:20The pigs can stay under for up to ten minutes.
12:43And now, the coast is clear.
12:47Eighty million years of isolation have endowed this ancient creature with extraordinary survival skills.
12:59The army ant.
13:05This may look like a ball of a million individuals, but make no mistake.
13:10The colony acts as one.
13:16A super organism with a sensory system of two million antennae.
13:23A skeleton made from the living bodies of workers.
13:31A defense system of soldier ants.
13:35Ready to act at any sign of danger.
13:40A digestive system processing piles of food deep inside.
13:47Even a coordinated system for dealing with all the waste.
13:56These are insects that, by working together, transcend individual size.
14:04The colony can search the entire jungle.
14:09And flush out its wildlife.
14:19Each day, it sends out a silent probe into the forest.
14:23In quest of food.
14:32It doesn't use scouts like other ants.
14:39Instead, a vast search party pushes into virgin territory.
14:49Seeking out the signs of anything alive.
15:04They spread out along a ten-meter front.
15:08Sweeping across the forest floor.
15:13To find prey, the ants must first touch it.
15:18The irony is that this, the most successful hide-and-seek player in the forest, is almost completely blind.
15:28It distinguishes the living only by their movement.
15:35As long as an animal remains still, it is safe.
15:42But the slightest twitch will give it away.
15:50Within seconds, the prey is pinned down.
15:57Within minutes, it's torn apart at its joints.
16:04The more the prey struggles, the more the ants engage.
16:13Right across the raid front, prey of all sizes are driven from their hiding places.
16:23Even wasps must abandon their homes when the ants arrive.
16:32Everything alive in the path of the raiders.
16:36Overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
16:44To survive here, you have to be prepared to die here.
17:01But the sun can return as quickly as the storm arrived.
17:07And a rise of just a few degrees is enough to spark a thaw, even underground.
17:15The sound of the Tin, theumen.
17:24Now here comes Star Wars every night, its very normal.
17:24Every more youacherous on fire.
17:34The young lady, the grass was no
17:36creed, the latter night ahead and that done.
17:39It alsorue to the Lord.
17:43And on the ground.
17:44Frozen solid, a mountain stone wetter.
17:50It has the most extraordinary survival technique of all.
18:08The ability to come back from the dead.
18:17Only in the specialized filming chamber can we capture its extraordinary talent.
18:24The weather has developed special proteins which prevent ice crystals from forming inside its cells.
18:33A remarkable trick for a creature whose ancestors once lived in prehistoric warm wet forests.
18:43But when New Zealand's mountains grew up beneath them around five minute years ago,
18:48they were forced to come up with this incredible ability to survive near lethal temperatures.
19:02Defrosting uses up a lot of energy.
19:12So mountain snow berries are a welcome sight.
19:21The weather needs to stock up while it can.
19:25The next Antarctic storm could be the return of winter.
19:50It can tolerate over 80% of its body freezing solid and can do so day in and day out.
19:57For weeks at a time.
20:09Nowhere else in New Zealand does life go to such extremes to survive.
20:14Back in the hive, those bees too young to forage are housekeeping.
20:24Like the hornet queen, the queen bee has the immeasurable task of laying enough eggs to ensure the health and
20:31future of the colony.
20:38The custom of keeping wild Japanese bees is as old as society itself.
20:44And Yamaguchi has kept bees since boyhood.
20:51Japanese bees are so sensitive that it takes great patience and skill to keep them.
20:57The art of keeping them lies in understanding their behavior.
21:03They make honey stalls for the winter, but they also produce enough for Yamaguchi to harvest.
21:12Japanese bees may produce less honey than European bees, but the taste is very special.
21:22It's the smell of this growing store of energy-rich honey which could be their downfall, if it draws in
21:30a hornet scout.
21:34But right now, the hornets have other problems to contend with.
21:38The nest is now monstrous.
21:41The workers have excavated over a ton of earth.
21:52There are so many bodies living at close quarters that the queen and her dynasty are in danger of overheating.
22:03So workers create air conditioning, keeping a steady flow of fresh air circulating.
22:13Being unable to cope with high temperatures is a giant hornet's Achilles heel.
22:22The warmth of the hornet's nest belies the change in season.
22:32Seasons change fast up here in the mountains, and when autumn arrives, there are far fewer insects around.
22:42This means my hives are even more vulnerable to attack.
22:48For me, it's an anxious time.
22:57In the search for autumnal food, a scout hornet discovers Yamaguchi's wild bees.
23:11The honeybees fan an alarm pheromone through the air.
23:15This alerts the whole hive to the hornet's presence.
23:22The scout smells the honey within.
23:25A prize this rich is worth scent marking.
23:35But unlike the European bees, these Japanese bees do not attack.
23:41Instead, they lure the scout inside.
23:52Still, the bees hang fire.
24:00Then, one is caught.
24:02It's the signal the others have been waiting for.
24:05One is caught.
24:20One of the bones of the benedicts are ever sustainable beings.
24:21but the nest is an ice.
24:22That is untoward.
24:30If you look in the sea twentiethupa and preach it,
24:33They've fetched the crystals,
24:34this is a comentous wave process of düsterismo.
24:39Surrounded by vibrating bodies, the hornet at the core of the bee ball begins to overheat.
24:46The bees have the advantage, a heat tolerance two degrees above that of their enemy.
24:52At 46 degrees Celsius, the aggressor is roasted alive.
25:09The wild bees have spent millions of years living with the enemy.
25:13That's why they alone have developed this extraordinary survival strategy.
25:29He starts his search.
25:34A female is likely to be on a tree trunk.
25:39But trees in this part of the world are very tall.
25:48His search could be a long one.
25:56Unfortunately for him, she is 25 meters above him, near the top.
26:06She has more normal sized jaws, but then she only needs them for feeding.
26:12But he needs immense jaws for fighting.
26:20Because there are other males around with the same mission.
26:35Sheer strength is not enough in these battles.
26:41The technique is to reach over your opponent's head and hook your jaws under his wing covers.
26:49That's why his jaws are so long and have that odd shape.
26:55He's got the grip.
26:58Now he has to lift.
27:02And that needs strength.
27:13Another lift is needed.
27:26And that's that.
27:30Beetle armour is strong, so he bounces.
27:34The winner climbs on.
27:38There are more males ready to fight him up here.
27:41The winner wins the winner.
27:45The winner goes, of course, until fortunes or the winner.
28:04The winner will not be the winner.
28:06The winner will never die.
28:06The winner will be the winner.
28:07It's not my winner.
28:15And here she is, at last.
28:23But she doesn't seem to be in the mood.
28:41So, now, he has to use his great jaws as a restraining cage.
28:53Success, at last.
29:02But the hurling habit dies hard.
29:12Mantids will eat anything that moves.
29:16Including other mantids.
29:34Time to leave.
29:46This tiny insect is now open to attack from predators lurking in the underground.
30:02Whether an individual mantis survives or not is partly a matter of chance.
30:12Whether it's spotted by a predator.
30:21Whether it turns right.
30:24Or left.
30:26Or left.
30:34So far, its luck has held.
30:38But this hungry jumping spider is still in pursuit.
30:47A mantis is born with exceptional eyesight.
30:51But a spider's is even better.
30:59Although this young mantis can't yet fly, its long forelegs evolved to catch prey, give it reach.
31:06Or, like if you'd like.
31:08Once.
31:08Or a butterfly.
31:27Or, like if you sent a spider.
31:27Or you'd like.
31:31Or your dad's.
31:31Or.
31:31Look it's impossible.
31:36Or, like you said, be the next...
31:36escape. But this mantis has a surprising line in self-defence. Kung Fu, praying mantis style.
32:06Of course it's all bluff, trying to look bigger and confuse its enemy. But it's got away with it.
32:25Just staying alive for its first few hours is a significant accomplishment for a newly hatched insect.
32:34But there's still a long way to go. With a bit of luck, in two months' time, it'll be as
32:41big and beautiful as this orchid mantid.
32:55Or maybe not. After all, mantids are cannibals.
33:06By pooling their resources, the queens have survived their first major challenge.
33:12But this coalition can't last.
33:17Tensions are already on the rise as the queens jostle for position within the royal court.
33:25The weaker crouch submissively before the more dominant, including the founding queen.
33:34So begins the delicate maneuvering that will soon take on a deadly significance.
33:42Those at the bottom of the hierarchy have little chance of surviving the coming trials.
33:53Another struggle for control is also beginning above ground.
33:58The coral nest is not the only one in Horseshoe Canyon.
34:04The desert floor is littered with similar sized colonies.
34:08And there's not enough room for all of them.
34:12Now the darker side of the honey ants emerges.
34:18It's time for the coral colony to mount a pre-emptive strike on its nearest neighbors.
34:33This killing spree continues through the summer,
34:36until the coral colony has eliminated all the other new nests in their immediate neighborhood.
34:50The foundations of the empire have been laid.
34:58Underground too. Events have taken a darker turn.
35:04One of the queens lies dead in the royal chamber.
35:09It's not clear why, but the workers have started singling out the weaker queens for special attention.
35:19At first it's all very subtle.
35:21One isn't fed so often or cleaned as diligently.
35:29But then the workers start bullying and harassing their chosen victim.
35:38Finally, it spills over into direct attack.
35:42And the workers tear the chosen queen to pieces.
35:53Nothing can go to waste.
35:55Even the royal carcass.
36:00Workers carry hungry larvae over to feast on the dead queen.
36:04Even the queen, including many that must have been her own offspring.
36:17As the weeks pass, the revolution continues.
36:24Only the most dominant royals seem immune to attack.
36:28They just watch, and wait, as the workers go about their gruesome business.
36:38When the air itself becomes saturated, and the temperature is just right,
36:43rare giants emerge.
37:02It can grow to the size of a man's fist.
37:03A Pawelephanta snail.
37:05It can grow to the size of a man's fist.
37:17So rare, they can only be filmed in captivity.
37:21Where their extraordinary behavior is revealed.
37:26It's still a mystery as to exactly how they track down their food.
37:33But one thing is for sure.
37:36This snail has unusual tastes.
37:40And revolting table banners.
37:45There are still ten days for you.
37:47There are still many things.
38:03There are still many things.
38:07There are still many things.
38:35It's mouth envelopes and suffocates.
38:39It's the earth world.
38:50It's sucked down like spaghetti.
39:11For anything bigger, it's got 6,000 teeth ready to shred the next meal.
39:22In this super-saturated environment, this specialised smell is the ultimate predator.
39:31The rains have arrived in the mountains of East Africa.
39:36One of the most organised swarms on earth has appeared above ground.
39:43They are driver ants, an insect with a fearsome reputation.
39:53In the rainy season, they form these extraordinary hunting trails.
40:01Large soldier ants line the trail, protecting the smaller workers inside.
40:06Their massive jaws create an impregnable barricade.
40:13The soldiers create these protective tunnels whenever they cross open ground.
40:27The trails radiate from the nest in every direction.
40:31Some stretch 100 metres.
40:32A worker running its full pelt takes 45 minutes to run its length.
40:38The soldiers protect the trail at any cost.
40:48Although blind, they are highly sensitive to vibrations and air currents and become instantly
40:54defensive when under attack.
40:58Stress pheromones put the whole task force on alert.
41:02They are ready to take on anything, including people.
41:10They are programmed to keep the trail moving or die trying.
41:22Driver ants are the stuff of legend.
41:26It is said that they kill everything that crosses their path.
41:29It is said that no animal is safe when they are on the warpath.
41:33It is even said that they will enter huts to attack people or kill babies left unattended in their cots.
41:46The truth is somewhat different.
41:49Although the bites are painful against people, they are purely defensive.
41:52The jaws may slice through human flesh like butter, but it is simply a warning.
42:03Despite the myths, driver ants are still ruthless killers, but in a way that often benefits the villagers.
42:11dangerous pests like scorpions are quickly set upon by the ants.
42:18Even the scorpion's deadly sting is powerless against this invincible army.
42:23Both workers and soldiers join the attack, dividing up their roles according to their size.
42:32As some look for a chink in its leg armor, others prize open its body plates like a tin opener.
42:44With its sting immobilized and faced by such overwhelming odds, the scorpion eventually gives up the fight.
42:55The dismembered body is hauled back down the trail to feed the nest.
43:11The farmers' fields provide even more opportunities for the attack force.
43:19Pests, disturbed by digging, are soon dispatched by hundreds of razor-sharp jaws.
43:27The ants make a clean sweep, capturing up to 100,000 insects in a single raid.
43:40Despite the ants' formidable reputation, most farmers value their role as pest controllers.
43:49In defense of the trail, the ants take no prisoners, but even an innocuous-looking insect can be surprisingly dangerous.
44:01The soil millipede is killed quickly, but the soldiers' highly sensitive antennae immediately reveal that it's poisonous.
44:10The message soon reaches nearby ants.
44:13They know exactly what to do.
44:15They gather lumps of mud and bury the problem.
44:42With the millipede out of harm's way, the trail can safely continue its journey.
44:49But more dangers await the trailblazers.
44:58A praying mantis plucks unsuspecting ants from the column.
45:08He seems to have the upper hand, but the ants he kills send out a dying message.
45:15Reacting to this pheromone, reinforcements arrive.
45:20The mantis is a deadly predator, but the ants know exactly what they're dealing with.
45:30One soldier grabs the mantis' jaws, stopping it from doing any more damage.
45:40Other ants swarm over the mantis, butchering it with surgical precision.
45:58The mantis' fate is sealed by a clinical decapitation.
46:13The eggs and pupae are taken into the new nest.
46:21Here, they're safe.
46:22The millions of interlocking ants that make up the nest superstructure create an impenetrable barrier.
46:47Only from the outside is it possible to get an idea of the nest's huge scale.
46:59Literally millions of individuals form a nervous network that communicates using pheromones.
47:09As ants pass messages to each other, they effectively act like brain cells.
47:20Through the millions of interconnections, they arrive at a decision that works for the benefit of the colony.
47:30Like human brain cells, individual ants are not intelligent, but the links between them create a mind.
47:37An ant superbrain.
47:50Deep inside is the queen.
47:53Her role is to replenish the colony by laying two million eggs a month.
48:03She is merely an egg-laying machine under the collective command of all the ants that make up the mind
48:09of the hive.
48:12The ants create a different kind of intelligence, a brain that exists outside any single body.
48:37She is merely an egg-laying machine under the dead.
48:43times as the desert locust. Eggs that have remained in the ground for twenty years begin
48:51to hatch.
49:04The young locusts are known as hoppers for at this stage they are flightless. They find
49:10new feeding grounds by following the smell of sprouting grass.
49:21Normally it takes four weeks for hoppers to become adults, but when the conditions are
49:26right, as now, their development switches to the fast track.
49:35As the vegetation in one place begins to run out, the winged adults release phenomones,
49:41scent messages, which tell others in the group that they must move on.
49:57And when groups merge, they form a swarm.
50:22An adult locusts eats its entire body weight every day, and a whole swarm can consume literally
50:29hundreds of tons of vegetation. They have to keep on moving. The swarm travels with the
50:39wind. It's the most energy saving way of flying. Following the flow of wind means that they're
50:49always heading toward areas of low pressure, places where wind meets rain and vegetation
50:55starts to grow. As they fly, swarms join up with other swarms to form gigantic plagues several
51:05billions strong and as much as forty miles wide. They will consume every edible thing that
51:13lies in their palm. This is one of planet Earth's greatest spectacles. It's rarely seen on this scale, and it
51:34won't last long. Once the food has gone, the steady roar of a billion beating locust wings will once again
51:42be replaced by the
51:43wind. By nothing more than the sound of the desert wind.
51:50We've seen how managing woodland and farmland for butterflies can preserve the countryside we love, and also how butterflies can
51:57inspire the next generation to protect it.
52:02But if you still have doubts about whether butterflies can make our countryside a better place, then you need look
52:09no further than the humble caterpillar.
52:12Because if there's one thing we've learnt from them, it's that change is possible.
52:24This is a brimstone. It emerged from an egg a few weeks ago, but now it's ready for a change.
52:36First it spins a silken pad, a place to anchor hooks on the rear of its body.
52:47In a move to widen a contortionist, it passes strands of silk behind itself, creating a girdle to support it
52:55through the change to come.
53:10With anchor and line secure, the transformation can take place.
53:22Caterpillars are little more than stomachs on legs, but that body has served its purpose and can be discarded in
53:33favour of another.
53:35The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar's head is about to split wide open, and when it does, something very different
53:44will emerge.
53:49A caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar was an eating machine.
53:56An identity rolled up like a sock and discarded.
54:02This body is for something different, an agent of near miraculous change, and one responsible for making butterflies powerful symbols
54:13of hope and transformation.
54:16This is a sign that something beautiful is surely on its way.
54:25The chrysalis is one of the most enduring symbols in the natural world.
54:30The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar.
54:41The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar.
54:43The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar.
54:44The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar.
54:44The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar.
54:44The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The caterpillar. The
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