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An attack can happen anywhere.

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Even the suburbs of an American city
are a nightmare world for insects

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just another battleground in a war

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that's been fought for hundreds
of millions of years.

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A moth confused by the flight
is being watched

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a ruthless predator is waiting for
just the right moment.

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Humans only face monsters
in their fantasies

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but insects face them every day
in their world.

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A preying mantis is a fearsome predator
in its miniature universe

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but it still needs its own defences.

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Every insect is just a convenient
mouthful of protein to bigger animals.

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When it takes to the air the predator
become the prey.

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This mantis has been targeted
by the sonar of a bat.

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But the mantis has a single ear.

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It can hear the bat's puses
of ultrasound.

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When the bat gets closer
the mantis deliberately stalls

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and tumbles out of
the air to safety.

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And to the bat
its target has just disappeared.

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Insects live in a world of attack
and defence

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measure and counter measure.

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The most deadly battleground
is the rainforest.

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Human scientists have no real idea

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of how many different kinds of
insects live out their lives here.

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Certainly hundreds of thousand
possibly millions.

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And they're all fighting
their own private wars

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usually out of sight of human eyes.

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It's a jungle out there

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insects are in conflict with spiders

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with other insects

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with plants
with just about everything.

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For many insects the best defence is to
look like the plants they live on.

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Every vein, every blemish is reproduced
down to the last detail.

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Dead leaves

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damaged leaves

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green leaves.

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Perfect camouflage so long
as they keep still.

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If danger does come too close
an enemy can be started

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by a sudden flash of colour.

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Most of these secret wars

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are being fought high in the tree tops
and the only way

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that humans can even glimpse
the scale of these battles

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the sheer number of antagonists is
by fogging the trees

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discharging a fast acing insecticide
into the canopy.

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It'll bring down the rain of hidden
insects into the collecting funnels below

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There are millions of insects

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with millions of different strategies
for staying alive

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but they all have
one basic aim in life

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to find enough to
eat amongst all this competition.

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Yet insects are masters at exploiting
any kind of food

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whether in the jungle
or in a human eating house.

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Their secret lies with their
mouthparts versatile, flexible

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engineered precisely to
process any food on offer.

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Cockroaches still
have the same basic design

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as the earliest insects.

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Their mouths come complete
with their own cutlery set

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the outer instruments act
like knives

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slicing and crushing the food.

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Then it's passed back
to a pair of forks

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which shovel it upinto the mouth itself.

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A caterpillar also needs jaws
like knives

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for slicing up endless amounts
of tough plants.

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But a caterpillar eventually
becomes a butterfly

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and when it does it alters its diet
from solid leaves to liquid nectar.

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So, during its transformation

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it completely redesigns its mouthparts.

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The knives disappear

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and the forks transform into
a flexible drinking straw.

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Less than half a millimeter wide

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it sucks up liquid
and when the butterfly's finished

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it just rolls it up
like a hosepipe on a reel.

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But the most complex design
belongs to the fly.

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A pad of fine tubes to slurp up
its liquid food.

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Finding food is only half the battle.

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The other half is staying alive
long enough to enjoy it.

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In the world of insects

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there's no such thing as a free lunch.

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There's fierce competition
for anything edible.

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Even something that at times
the howler monkey dung

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It's greaing fead to fly

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But it happening quick

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These beetles specialise
in howler monkey dung.

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They claim it as their own

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taking it away to bury it out
of sight of predators and rivals

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they have no intention
of sharing their food.

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All they have to do is to hang
onto their prize

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while they plunge the hundred fee
to the forest floor.

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The beetles are so quick
at carrying off their food

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that at times the forest rains dung.

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Howler monkey dung does have
one advantage as a food

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it doesn't mind being eaten.

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This leaf on the other hand does.

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Its part of a plant

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that can defend itself
by producing a nasty poison.

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Milkweed for example
has several poisons in it

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but its still covered
with aphids sucking its juices.

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And milkweed beetles

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that happily chew the leaves immune
to all its toxins.

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And some insects are not just immune
to the toxims

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they store them in their bodies
making them poisonous to their enemies.

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But there's no point
in being poisonous

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and having to be eaten before
a predator learns its lesson.

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Deadly insects advertise
their toxins in advance

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by wearing bright colours.

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Ganging together
emphasizes these point.

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Orange and black is a hazard warning
recognized everywhere.

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But at night poisonous insects
need a different alarm system.

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A tiger moth's warning
colours protect it

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during the day
but it can't be seen in the dark.

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And anyway the main danger
at night comes

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from bats which use sound to
find their prey.

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The moth though can
hear the bat's sonar

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and turns on its own siren.

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It screams an ultrasonic warning
that the bat can't fail to hear.

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The bat understands
and leaves the moth in peace.

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Insects are never free from danger

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and often an insect's worst enemy
is another insect.

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A clover worm caterpillar
seems helpless

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defenceless to
a hungry ladybird larva.

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But the caterpillar can escape it drops
out of sight on a line of fine silk.

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Its victim seems to have vanished

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so the lad bird larva just gives up.

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Once the threat has gone

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the caterpillar hauls itself up
and carries on eating.

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This wasp is also hunting
the caterpillar not to eat it

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but to lay her eggs inside it.

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An a wasp is not so easily fooled.

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The caterpillar tries
its vanishing act again

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but the wasp
just abseils down the line.

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Injecting her eggs won't kill
the caterpillar straight away

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but it will die as her grubs hatch
and eat it from the inside.

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But its day isn't over yet

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another kind of wasp
needs a caterpillar incubator.

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This one reels in the lifeline
and injects her eggs.

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When they hatch
they will eat the first wasp's grubs

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even the muggers get mugged.

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It seems that every defence is
open to counter attack

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in the battle ground of the rainforest

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where they're a threat
lurking in every shadow

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insects have adopted
some drastic measures.

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Termites live inside a caste.

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They don't often leave the safety
of their fortress.

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If they do it's to build extensions
or make repairs

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and they're guarded
by an army of soldier termites.

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With all this security

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termites should be safe from attack.

146
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But waiting outside is
their worst nightmare

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an assassin bug in full disguise.

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Termites take a big risk

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when they open their fortress
they're blind

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and the bug has covered itself
in their building material.

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To them

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its just another
part of the nest.

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They simply blunder into it.

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The assassin bug
sucks the termite's body dry.

155
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The workers try to close the gaps
in their defences

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as quickly as they can
they're still not safe

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until every tiny crack is sealed.

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In the meantime

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the bug has a sinister use
for its victim.

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Termites live by rules
they're fanatically tidy.

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A dead termite has to be taken to
the communal graveyard

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and the assassin bug exploits
this obsession.

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All that the worker detects
is a corpse

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and the assassin bug shakes the body
teasing the worker.

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Compulsive tidiness
will cost this termite its life.

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As if fishing through a hole the bug
dangles the corpse as bait.

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Then it drops it

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and grabs the worker the next in a
chain of up to twenty serial murders.

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Insects weren't even safe
from other insects

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when they took to the air.

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Robber flies are deadly
flying predators

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and there are thousands of them stationed
across the high plains of Colorado.

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Anything flying through their airspace
is adking for trouble.

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They all scramble to intercept

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the first one there make a grab

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snatches the bee from the air
and crash lands with its bounty.

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But all flying insects
face an even worse threat

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from an ancient enemy.

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As long as insects
have been able to fly

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spiders have built traps
to snare them.

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Some webs don't
just entangle their victims

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they draw them in with a trick.

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These zig-zags reflect
ultra violet light

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looking like dappled sunlight to
the vision of a butterfly.

185
00:20:11,343 --> 00:20:15,939
And a patch of sulight on the ground
would be just the place to find flowers.

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Paralysed and wrapped in silk

187
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some victims will be stored
in the web a future meal

188
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but that's an open invitation
to some other insects.

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This spindly Australian assassin bug
makes a living

190
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by stealing from spiders.

191
00:20:57,689 --> 00:21:01,716
This spider has no idea
that there's a burglar in its home.

192
00:21:02,261 --> 00:21:04,695
The assassin bug tip toes
across the web

193
00:21:04,830 --> 00:21:09,426
so delicately that any vibration seems
just like the breeze.

194
00:21:09,835 --> 00:21:12,633
It snaps each strand in
its path carefully

195
00:21:12,771 --> 00:21:14,966
so the spider doesn't notice.

196
00:21:42,034 --> 00:21:46,300
Safely in the center of the web

197
00:21:46,438 --> 00:21:49,669
the bug just has to wait for
the spider to stop its food

198
00:21:51,977 --> 00:21:55,469
A different burgalr
this time a scorpion flies

199
00:21:55,614 --> 00:21:58,208
is already awaiting
the spider's supplies

200
00:22:03,555 --> 00:22:07,924
This may seem like a free meal
but it's still a risky place to eat

201
00:22:14,066 --> 00:22:17,263
It can sometimes get caught
on the sticky thread

202
00:22:17,402 --> 00:22:19,802
but he has a cunning ban

203
00:22:28,747 --> 00:22:32,547
It spits out of solvent to
dissolve the deadly silk

204
00:22:32,651 --> 00:22:35,916
fling himself to infiltrate
another web

205
00:22:44,629 --> 00:22:49,157
But there's one insect that launches
a full frontal attack on spiders.

206
00:22:50,302 --> 00:22:52,930
The giant damselfly.

207
00:22:55,207 --> 00:22:56,834
Six inches long

208
00:22:56,975 --> 00:23:00,342
the damsel fly doesn't just
steal the spider's prey

209
00:23:00,479 --> 00:23:02,743
it steals the spider.

210
00:23:13,358 --> 00:23:15,553
It can hover stalking the spider

211
00:23:15,694 --> 00:23:18,629
from the air then snatching it
from its web.

212
00:23:23,368 --> 00:23:27,737
A deadly air raid performed
like an aerial ballet.

213
00:24:47,986 --> 00:24:49,647
In their battle for survival

214
00:24:49,788 --> 00:24:52,757
insects are obviously winning
there are so many of them

215
00:24:52,891 --> 00:24:57,328
and so many different kinds and each
and very one has come up

216
00:24:57,462 --> 00:25:00,329
with a unique strategy
for staying alive.

217
00:25:05,337 --> 00:25:09,068
But for insects the war is never over

218
00:25:18,183 --> 00:25:20,811
and in their bid to
stay one step ahead

219
00:25:20,952 --> 00:25:24,752
some insects have evolved
surprisingly powerful weapons.

220
00:25:26,992 --> 00:25:30,860
Few creatures will risk annoying
a bombadier beetle.

221
00:25:33,265 --> 00:25:37,895
It mixes a cocktail of deadly
chemicals in a special chamber.

222
00:25:39,104 --> 00:25:41,538
They react and explode
at boiling point

223
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:45,235
from its rear end
an awesome chemical weapon.

224
00:25:49,814 --> 00:25:52,942
But even this is no defence
against one predator.

225
00:26:02,193 --> 00:26:06,323
The power of the many out weights
the power of the one.

226
00:26:09,768 --> 00:26:12,236
A bivouac of army ants

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00:26:12,370 --> 00:26:15,100
perhaps three quarters of
a million individuals

228
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,209
meshed together to form a living nest.

229
00:26:19,077 --> 00:26:21,511
This encampment is resting now.

230
00:26:21,780 --> 00:26:24,908
But when the order is given
the monster will waks

231
00:26:25,050 --> 00:26:28,508
and send out its tendrils
into the forest.

232
00:26:44,970 --> 00:26:47,131
There's no defence
against this invasion

233
00:26:47,272 --> 00:26:49,331
no room for negotiation.

234
00:26:52,143 --> 00:26:54,668
This army takes no prisoners.

235
00:26:59,017 --> 00:27:03,317
Even ruthless predators succomb to
this wave of devastation

236
00:27:03,521 --> 00:27:04,988
there's no mercy

237
00:27:19,771 --> 00:27:22,706
This relentless tide of
destruction creeps

238
00:27:22,841 --> 00:27:25,674
through the forest at twenty metres

239
00:27:25,810 --> 00:27:30,213
an hour annihilating
everything in its path.

240
00:27:43,728 --> 00:27:46,925
Individual insects can't reach
the size of monsters

241
00:27:47,065 --> 00:27:50,831
from the world of science fiction
but working together

242
00:27:50,969 --> 00:27:55,633
an army of ants behaves
like a single giant creatures

243
00:27:55,774 --> 00:27:59,835
a monster from the world
of science fact.