This five-part BBC Natural History Unit series looks at invertebrates. Sir David Attenborough presents this bizarre and fascinating miniature universe, a life which is usually ignored. From bugs and beetles, to neon glow worms and silk-weaving spiders, these different species all fall in front of the lens. With a fascinating use of technical innovations in lighting and computerised motion control it is possible to see how they live their daily lives.
These creatures may be miniscule, but they have complex and super-organised methods of behaviour. From a damsel fly in Costa Rica, to purple crown butterflies in Taiwan, Life in the Undergrowth looks at the most successful group of animals who have conquered every corner of the planet, with an amazing 200 million of them to every one of us!
Programme 1: Invasion of the Land
Since they left the seas to conquer land 400 million years ago, this programme looks at how the invertebrates have become the most successful group of animals in the world.
Programme 2: Taking to the Air
A look at how the invertebrate first took to the skies, and the evolution of wings.
Programme 3: The Silk Spinners
The great invention of the invertebrate is silk, which is used in hugely inventive ways, from the hanging webs of New Zealand glow worms, to the ingenious webs of the spider.
Programme 4: Intimate Relations
In this programme we meet the world’s smallest insects, which rely on a complex web of relations and survival with plants and other animals.
Programme 5: Super Societies
The last programme of the series looks at the loving and complex relationships some parents have to their young. In particular, the programme looks at the complex world of the bumble-bee queen as she is turned upon by her own daughters and stabbed to death.
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