1 00:00:16,070 --> 00:00:21,243 The ability to move through the air in any direction you wish, 2 00:00:21,246 --> 00:00:24,348 to cross continents and oceans, 3 00:00:24,383 --> 00:00:27,835 to range over forests and deserts and mountains, 4 00:00:27,870 --> 00:00:33,152 all this birds have been able to do for 150 millions years. 5 00:00:33,494 --> 00:00:38,221 But they won't the first or indeed the last in the skies. 6 00:00:40,645 --> 00:00:46,030 We are setting out to explore one of the most astonishing stories in the natural world. 7 00:00:47,202 --> 00:00:51,615 The way in which animals manages to rise up from the surface of the Earth, 8 00:00:51,625 --> 00:00:54,606 and colonise the air. 9 00:00:56,282 --> 00:00:59,651 From the dazzling aerobatics of the insects... 10 00:01:02,622 --> 00:01:06,425 to the majesty of ancient winged reptiles. 11 00:01:12,781 --> 00:01:16,301 The splendor and agility of birds... 12 00:01:20,245 --> 00:01:24,647 and the sonar guided precision of night flying bats. 13 00:01:28,719 --> 00:01:31,812 Flight has been the key to the success 14 00:01:31,847 --> 00:01:35,707 of some of our Planet most remarkable inhabitants. 15 00:01:42,119 --> 00:01:47,299 To analyze theirs spectacular skills, we will use the latest technology. 16 00:01:49,885 --> 00:01:53,159 And we will travel around the world. 17 00:01:53,704 --> 00:01:58,560 From the jungles of Borneo to the fossils filled rocks of China. 18 00:01:59,590 --> 00:02:02,712 And the Cloud Forest of Ecuador. 19 00:02:05,956 --> 00:02:09,205 We will take you into the air... 20 00:02:10,866 --> 00:02:14,026 and travel with animals as they fly. 21 00:02:40,757 --> 00:02:44,689 Evidence for the very beginning of this astonishing story 22 00:02:44,724 --> 00:02:49,411 can be found close to home in The Fens of Cambridgeshire. 23 00:02:51,674 --> 00:02:57,081 Here live creatures that have an ancestry stretching back millions of years. 24 00:02:59,091 --> 00:03:04,567 Nobody know exactly how the first flying animals in the world evolve, 25 00:03:04,815 --> 00:03:08,409 but there are creatures alive today, that can take us back 26 00:03:08,444 --> 00:03:11,603 to those far distance remarkable times, 27 00:03:11,628 --> 00:03:15,547 and they live surprisingly under water. 28 00:03:20,982 --> 00:03:24,105 Looking down through the surface to the riverbed, 29 00:03:24,140 --> 00:03:29,769 is like traveling back in time over 320 million years. 30 00:03:31,906 --> 00:03:36,126 It was then, in an age long before even the dinosaurs evolved, 31 00:03:36,161 --> 00:03:41,268 that creatures like this first appeared in the waters of the Earth. 32 00:03:45,224 --> 00:03:48,155 It's an insect. 33 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,979 A ferocious predator with jaws like a mechanical grab. 34 00:04:05,023 --> 00:04:08,124 It seems unlikely that this animal ancestors 35 00:04:08,159 --> 00:04:11,625 were among the first creatures ever to fly. 36 00:04:16,252 --> 00:04:20,477 But this one is not yet adult, it's a larva, 37 00:04:20,512 --> 00:04:23,715 and it doesn't spend all his life in the water. 38 00:04:24,538 --> 00:04:29,641 It has another life and another body above the surface. 39 00:04:31,654 --> 00:04:35,381 Early one morning it climbs up a reed. 40 00:04:38,704 --> 00:04:44,972 A split appears in its skin, and a very different looking creature begins to emerge. 41 00:04:47,968 --> 00:04:51,909 It has four lumps on its back, that might perhaps ancestry 42 00:04:51,944 --> 00:04:56,142 have become either gills or protective armor plates. 43 00:04:57,811 --> 00:05:01,730 But now they develop into something very different. 44 00:05:06,602 --> 00:05:09,525 Wings. 45 00:05:10,571 --> 00:05:13,805 It has two pairs of them. 46 00:05:14,309 --> 00:05:20,017 Liquid from its body is pump-down along veins to stretch them tight. 47 00:05:22,088 --> 00:05:25,835 As they dry in the sun, they harden. 48 00:05:34,337 --> 00:05:38,613 The watering dragon has become the Dragonfly. 49 00:05:39,001 --> 00:05:43,080 And the four wing depurates that he uses to get into the air, 50 00:05:43,115 --> 00:05:46,116 is the earliest that we know. 51 00:05:50,873 --> 00:05:54,629 Imprints of such wings have been found in rocks that was lay-down 52 00:05:54,664 --> 00:05:57,705 on the bottom of ancient lakes and streams. 53 00:06:00,325 --> 00:06:05,015 This specimen is about 150 million years old. 54 00:06:05,922 --> 00:06:12,098 And at nearly 300 million years, this is the oldest complete wing yet discovered. 55 00:06:16,193 --> 00:06:20,973 Ancient and modern wings share a structure that is strikingly similar. 56 00:06:23,477 --> 00:06:28,630 So today's Dragonflies are amazingly living fossils that can show us 57 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:34,924 how the very first flyers overcame the pull of gravity, and took to the skies. 58 00:07:01,075 --> 00:07:05,014 Their wings are marvels of natural engineering. 59 00:07:06,327 --> 00:07:09,503 But to see how they lift the Dragonfly into the air, 60 00:07:09,538 --> 00:07:12,711 we need to slow the action down. 61 00:07:13,174 --> 00:07:15,895 In principle, it looks very simple, 62 00:07:15,953 --> 00:07:19,303 each wing beats-down, pushing on the air below, 63 00:07:19,338 --> 00:07:22,303 so lifting the Dragonfly up. 64 00:07:22,610 --> 00:07:25,665 But each beat also creates another air current 65 00:07:25,748 --> 00:07:29,015 that lifts the Dragonfly in a very different way. 66 00:07:30,216 --> 00:07:35,066 And I can demonstrate it, using this strip of paper to represent a wing. 67 00:07:35,318 --> 00:07:38,326 If I blow across the top of it, it will rise. 68 00:07:38,361 --> 00:07:40,902 Watch. 69 00:07:49,455 --> 00:07:53,932 That is because the faster air moves, the lower its pressure. 70 00:07:54,001 --> 00:07:56,646 So I created a lower pressure above the wing, 71 00:07:56,681 --> 00:08:00,063 and in consequence it was sucked upwards. 72 00:08:00,369 --> 00:08:06,478 The problem for a flying animal is to recreate that difference in air speed. 73 00:08:14,338 --> 00:08:17,988 The way the Dragonfly does this is remarkable. 74 00:08:24,070 --> 00:08:29,942 As it moves through the air, we can see that it twists its wings at different angels. 75 00:08:31,998 --> 00:08:37,389 On the powerful down-beat, it holds them at a slight upward angle to the air flow, 76 00:08:37,965 --> 00:08:42,116 and this produces an extraordinary effect above the wing. 77 00:08:42,671 --> 00:08:47,836 It create a swirl behind the leading edge, which spins the air round, 78 00:08:47,973 --> 00:08:52,305 increasing the speed of the air current over the top of the wing. 79 00:08:52,361 --> 00:08:58,489 And with just a tiny increasing speed generates a significant upward force. 80 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,164 Lifting up the wing and the Dragonfly. 81 00:09:05,948 --> 00:09:09,975 The Dragonfly can then change the direction of its wing beats 82 00:09:10,010 --> 00:09:13,650 to propel it forwards as well as upwards. 83 00:09:19,052 --> 00:09:24,438 Remarkably, a Dragonfly can beat each of its four wings independently. 84 00:09:27,103 --> 00:09:32,145 And that enable it to perform an astonishing variety of maneuvers. 85 00:09:34,232 --> 00:09:37,167 It can hover. 86 00:09:39,513 --> 00:09:42,543 It can glide. 87 00:09:43,059 --> 00:09:46,138 It can even fly backwards. 88 00:09:50,107 --> 00:09:54,259 For maximum power, it beats both pairs together, 89 00:09:54,505 --> 00:09:57,575 and can make really sharp turns. 90 00:09:59,512 --> 00:10:06,127 So the very first Dragonflies were able to extend their territories far and wide. 91 00:10:08,826 --> 00:10:12,298 And as more insects joined them in the skies, 92 00:10:13,275 --> 00:10:17,742 the Dragonflies had the skills to be deadly aerial hunters. 93 00:10:32,061 --> 00:10:35,931 The ability to fly brought great advances to those early insects. 94 00:10:36,257 --> 00:10:40,212 It enable them to find food, to escape from predators, 95 00:10:40,584 --> 00:10:46,255 and particularly important, to travel to new territories in search of a mate. 96 00:10:50,363 --> 00:10:53,761 Damselflies like their close relations Dragonflies, 97 00:10:53,873 --> 00:10:58,034 have remained virtually unchanged for millions of years. 98 00:10:59,023 --> 00:11:03,309 Mating can be quite complicated when both partners can fly, 99 00:11:03,989 --> 00:11:08,888 and these were among the first kind of animals that had to deal with that problem. 100 00:11:10,325 --> 00:11:13,929 The blue color of this one shows that it's a male. 101 00:11:15,313 --> 00:11:19,145 To attract a female, a male must have something to offer her. 102 00:11:19,180 --> 00:11:22,046 A territory. 103 00:11:23,944 --> 00:11:29,495 He chooses a stretch of water, that is likely to contain plenty of food for his offspring. 104 00:11:31,420 --> 00:11:35,214 Then he guard this territory against any rivals. 105 00:11:37,145 --> 00:11:40,973 Until a female flies in and joins him. 106 00:11:42,851 --> 00:11:45,960 He must now grab her before she changes her mind, 107 00:11:45,995 --> 00:11:48,856 in mid air if necessary. 108 00:11:50,377 --> 00:11:55,497 He uses claspers at the tip of his abdomen to grip her behind her neck. 109 00:11:56,270 --> 00:12:01,330 Amazingly, the pair are able to coordinate the beats of their eight wings. 110 00:12:03,071 --> 00:12:08,911 They may mate in the air, or choose a secluded patch where they be safe from predators. 111 00:12:10,843 --> 00:12:15,433 They then fly around the territory, laying their fertilized eggs. 112 00:12:26,199 --> 00:12:29,808 Flight enable insects to invade part of the Planet 113 00:12:29,899 --> 00:12:32,902 that until then had been uninhabited. 114 00:12:32,998 --> 00:12:36,711 The air. and they flourished. 115 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:46,114 So, 320 million years ago the skies flaunt with flying insects. 116 00:12:46,505 --> 00:12:50,308 But those early four wing forms were destined to produce 117 00:12:50,563 --> 00:12:55,520 a all range of spectacular highly specialize flyers. 118 00:12:58,870 --> 00:13:02,828 The need to lay eggs in water, tied the first Dragonflies 119 00:13:02,918 --> 00:13:06,007 to streams and ponds like these. 120 00:13:07,981 --> 00:13:12,264 But then around 20 million years after their arrival, 121 00:13:12,299 --> 00:13:16,955 a new kind of flying insect appeared with no such ties to water. 122 00:13:18,557 --> 00:13:23,916 To find spectacular proof of their success, we headed next to Borneo. 123 00:13:41,345 --> 00:13:46,049 To find the next chapter in our evolutionary story of the flying insects, 124 00:13:46,106 --> 00:13:49,000 I have come to Borneo. 125 00:13:49,907 --> 00:13:53,039 The very first flyers had two pairs of wings, 126 00:13:53,086 --> 00:13:56,080 now we looking for their successors. 127 00:13:57,339 --> 00:14:00,416 One group of creatures adapted that original 128 00:14:00,451 --> 00:14:04,049 four wing design with such success, 129 00:14:04,203 --> 00:14:06,968 that they diversified into the most numerous 130 00:14:07,003 --> 00:14:10,751 and wide spectrum of animals on the entire Planet, 131 00:14:10,815 --> 00:14:16,658 and you can find some of the most spectacular examples down there in the rainforest. 132 00:14:36,929 --> 00:14:43,410 Not all insects are hunters, some are strict vegetarians like this one. 133 00:14:43,872 --> 00:14:48,380 This it is the land living equivalent to that underwater monster, 134 00:14:48,415 --> 00:14:50,425 the Dragonfly larva. 135 00:14:50,815 --> 00:14:54,270 But this larva instead of catching little fish and water fleas, 136 00:14:54,922 --> 00:14:57,438 munches wood pulp. 137 00:14:57,623 --> 00:15:01,373 The trouble is that wood pulp is not very nutritious, 138 00:15:01,835 --> 00:15:05,304 and this creature, has to eat it for at least a year, 139 00:15:05,734 --> 00:15:08,803 before is this size, which is full grown. 140 00:15:08,978 --> 00:15:12,293 But then this larva will turn into an adult, 141 00:15:12,390 --> 00:15:15,360 which is equally monstrous. 142 00:15:20,370 --> 00:15:24,896 Emerging from beneath the ground, where it is lived and fed as a larva, 143 00:15:25,139 --> 00:15:29,607 is a beetle. one of the biggest in the world. 144 00:15:30,741 --> 00:15:33,772 The Atlas Beetle. 145 00:15:37,814 --> 00:15:40,781 Males like this one are armed with long horns, 146 00:15:40,884 --> 00:15:45,034 powerful weapons with which to compete with rivals for a mate. 147 00:15:46,967 --> 00:15:50,198 It now spend most of his time above the ground, 148 00:15:50,362 --> 00:15:53,555 margined its way through the undergrowth, where it feed 149 00:15:53,590 --> 00:15:56,397 on tree-sap and fallen fruit. 150 00:16:00,623 --> 00:16:05,075 This hefty powerful creature may not look as if it could fly. 151 00:16:07,401 --> 00:16:10,415 But it can. 152 00:16:11,531 --> 00:16:14,542 At key moments in its life he takes to the air 153 00:16:14,909 --> 00:16:21,083 to look for new sources of food, and of course, a female. 154 00:16:27,227 --> 00:16:33,011 All this burrowing and munching around could injure delicate flight wings, 155 00:16:33,357 --> 00:16:40,536 so beetles have harden the front pair to form this pair of protective covers, 156 00:16:40,919 --> 00:16:45,848 and the delicate flight pair are stored away in safety underneath. 157 00:16:54,806 --> 00:16:57,735 To see how the wings are folded away beneath their covers, 158 00:16:58,152 --> 00:17:01,190 we need to wait for take-off. 159 00:17:11,050 --> 00:17:17,826 As it flaps, sprung engines click-open and the wings are stretch to their full size. 160 00:17:38,203 --> 00:17:43,089 The working wings create lift in just the same way that the Dragonfly wings do, 161 00:17:44,032 --> 00:17:48,957 and the front wings, protecting them as a covers, are held out to the side. 162 00:17:49,512 --> 00:17:52,539 And their shape does give a little extra lift. 163 00:17:53,287 --> 00:17:57,068 So it clear that this is a really are all clumsy flyer. 164 00:18:04,086 --> 00:18:07,257 Landings can be clumsy too. 165 00:18:08,469 --> 00:18:13,688 And now those fragile wings must be carefully packed away beneath of their covers. 166 00:18:14,976 --> 00:18:19,292 They guided by a line of tiny hairs of the base of the abdomen. 167 00:18:23,060 --> 00:18:27,068 These grip the wings and help push them into position. 168 00:18:29,663 --> 00:18:32,429 The beetle dose it with all the care and precision 169 00:18:32,805 --> 00:18:36,689 that a skydiver uses when packing away his parachute. 170 00:18:40,675 --> 00:18:44,775 Once in a new territory, it will stake out a fresh source of food, 171 00:18:45,246 --> 00:18:48,841 and then defend it until a female arrives. 172 00:18:51,831 --> 00:18:55,118 The beetle way of life proved astonishingly successful. 173 00:18:55,579 --> 00:19:01,165 There are over 370,000 different species of beetle so far discovered. 174 00:19:01,535 --> 00:19:04,525 Unbelievable figure. 175 00:19:05,405 --> 00:19:09,939 So early on, the beetles manage to fly as much as they need to, 176 00:19:10,492 --> 00:19:13,594 with just one pair of wings. 177 00:19:16,623 --> 00:19:19,952 And then around 57 million years ago, 178 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,609 came another key development in the history of flight. 179 00:19:28,597 --> 00:19:32,303 A new type of insect appeared with two pairs of wings 180 00:19:32,494 --> 00:19:35,792 that became in effect huge billboards. 181 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:41,148 Wings that are perhaps the most dazzlingly beautiful of all. 182 00:19:42,940 --> 00:19:46,015 Butterflies. 183 00:19:59,830 --> 00:20:04,252 Butterflies live on nectar which they collect from flowers. 184 00:20:05,367 --> 00:20:10,177 Like Dragonflies and Beetles they also fly to find a mate. 185 00:20:10,561 --> 00:20:15,088 But the way they beat their colorful wings is significantly different. 186 00:20:28,883 --> 00:20:32,762 This lovely creature has two pairs of wings, 187 00:20:33,204 --> 00:20:36,545 but he has in effect turn them into one. 188 00:20:37,641 --> 00:20:44,010 It done that quite simply, by overlapping the larger front pair over the smaller hind pair, 189 00:20:44,128 --> 00:20:49,786 so when the front pair beat-down, they automatically press down lower pair. 190 00:20:50,503 --> 00:20:54,358 The lower pair themselves don't have the muscles to beat-down, 191 00:20:54,366 --> 00:20:57,649 but just enough strength to return up. 192 00:21:00,435 --> 00:21:06,028 A Butterfly's overlapping wings compare to the size of their bodies, are enormous, 193 00:21:06,374 --> 00:21:10,465 around 10 times the size of other insect wings. 194 00:21:19,928 --> 00:21:24,876 Because the wing is larger, each beat can generate a huge amount of lift. 195 00:21:26,860 --> 00:21:32,218 So to stay in airborne, a butterfly need to flap less often than other insects. 196 00:21:34,302 --> 00:21:40,906 But that slow wing-beat, also enable it to make rapid and unpredictable changes of direction. 197 00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:47,197 And that allow Butterflies to fly in that zigzag erratic way, 198 00:21:47,475 --> 00:21:51,028 which make them so difficulty to catch, if you are butterfly collector, 199 00:21:51,247 --> 00:21:54,230 or more importantly, a predator. 200 00:22:11,417 --> 00:22:15,342 The combined front and hind wings of butterfly, not only constitute 201 00:22:15,544 --> 00:22:19,971 very effective flying mechanism, they can also carry messages. 202 00:22:20,262 --> 00:22:24,780 In fact, they carry some of the loveliest advertisements in the all of the Animal Kingdom. 203 00:22:24,831 --> 00:22:29,206 Like for example, this beautiful Golden Birdwing Butterfly from Borneo. 204 00:22:34,625 --> 00:22:38,102 The butterfly huge wings provide auspicious canvas 205 00:22:38,622 --> 00:22:42,452 on which they display fantastically elaborate designs. 206 00:22:44,251 --> 00:22:47,926 So, how are these flying advertisements created? 207 00:22:49,833 --> 00:22:54,174 The secret lies in the microscopic structure of the wing surface. 208 00:22:59,048 --> 00:23:02,832 These overlapping scales lined up like tiles on a roof, 209 00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:07,405 have evolved from bristles that were once tiny sensors. 210 00:23:10,657 --> 00:23:15,374 Some contain tiny package of pigment that give the wings color. 211 00:23:23,010 --> 00:23:26,656 Others have a complex structure which split the light, 212 00:23:27,213 --> 00:23:32,320 so that when viewed from a particular angle, it reflects a brilliant iridescence. 213 00:23:44,766 --> 00:23:48,601 There are over 18,000 species of butterfly around the world, 214 00:23:48,965 --> 00:23:53,047 and each has wings with their own distinctive design. 215 00:23:54,186 --> 00:23:58,406 These ravishing colors and delectable patterns, of course, 216 00:23:58,683 --> 00:24:01,735 enable a male butterfly and a female butterfly to know 217 00:24:02,067 --> 00:24:04,352 whether or not they belong to the same species. 218 00:24:05,096 --> 00:24:12,584 And a mature adult ready to mate, can identify suitable partner from surprising distances. 219 00:24:21,016 --> 00:24:27,369 When a male and female eventually meet, they flutter around each other in a ritual dance. 220 00:24:29,802 --> 00:24:34,015 Each is checking out the flying skills and wingspans of the other. 221 00:24:41,949 --> 00:24:45,210 If both past the test, they mate. 222 00:24:54,540 --> 00:24:59,730 The sheer size of butterfly wings, might seem to condemn their owners to a slow, 223 00:25:00,496 --> 00:25:03,309 almost dawdling flight. 224 00:25:03,541 --> 00:25:07,827 But they can be much more efficient aeronauts then you might suppose. 225 00:25:09,965 --> 00:25:14,559 Butterflies may not be able to fly very fast, but astonishingly, 226 00:25:14,985 --> 00:25:20,313 for such frail looking creatures, they can travel for hundreds of miles in search of food. 227 00:25:23,789 --> 00:25:28,427 New discoveries are revealing that butterflies make immense journeys, 228 00:25:29,165 --> 00:25:31,432 and one of the most exciting of this studies 229 00:25:31,714 --> 00:25:37,073 is taking place 7,000 miles west of Borneo, in Europe. 230 00:25:50,168 --> 00:25:54,759 I am joining a research project in the upland meadow of Central Spain, 231 00:25:55,180 --> 00:25:59,064 to look for one of the greaters of all butterfly travelers. 232 00:26:01,116 --> 00:26:04,136 The Painted Lady. 233 00:26:07,003 --> 00:26:11,194 Every spring, Painted Ladies appear in Spain in great numbers. 234 00:26:13,512 --> 00:26:16,591 But Spain is just a stopover. 235 00:26:19,568 --> 00:26:23,046 An international team of scientists are uncovering evidence 236 00:26:23,318 --> 00:26:27,729 of an astonishing journey right across Europe and beyond. 237 00:26:32,428 --> 00:26:38,456 This hugely ambitious project is the brainchild of Dr. Constantise Iovanescu. 238 00:26:49,091 --> 00:26:52,357 Detailed records of when and where Painted Ladies appear 239 00:26:52,990 --> 00:26:56,590 have revealed an extraordinary mass migration. 240 00:26:56,939 --> 00:27:01,157 We were able to collect a huge number of observations 241 00:27:01,242 --> 00:27:04,906 from a more then 60 different countries, 242 00:27:04,958 --> 00:27:10,599 and maybe 35,000 records... -really? 243 00:27:10,818 --> 00:27:14,816 in many people contributing their observations, 244 00:27:15,265 --> 00:27:18,889 and for the first time it was possible to understand 245 00:27:18,987 --> 00:27:22,825 the general pattern of migration all around. 246 00:27:24,252 --> 00:27:28,288 By combining this wealth of data the team are revealing a route map 247 00:27:28,718 --> 00:27:31,950 that spans incredibly distances. 248 00:27:32,191 --> 00:27:35,320 And it begins in North Africa. 249 00:27:36,679 --> 00:27:41,205 Large numbers of Painted Ladies breed in Morocco over the winter, 250 00:27:42,225 --> 00:27:46,022 before setting out across the Mediterranean to Europe. 251 00:27:46,486 --> 00:27:49,642 They then follow the spring bloom north, as the plants 252 00:27:49,744 --> 00:27:53,943 that they and their young feed on, sprout leafs and flowers. 253 00:27:55,055 --> 00:27:58,793 In summer, they appear in Britain and Scandinavia. 254 00:28:00,413 --> 00:28:05,525 But no individual butterfly lives long enough to achieve this huge journey by itself. 255 00:28:06,418 --> 00:28:10,192 Each step is taking by a new generation. 256 00:28:13,260 --> 00:28:16,548 So, this Painted Lady in Britain is the grandchild 257 00:28:16,672 --> 00:28:19,701 of a butterfly that set out from Morocco. 258 00:28:22,588 --> 00:28:26,236 But then, in autumn, all the Painted Ladies vanish. 259 00:28:28,580 --> 00:28:33,849 Do they simply die out? or could that be a return leg to their epic migration? 260 00:28:36,069 --> 00:28:39,395 Searching for an answer to this mystery, has given the project 261 00:28:39,470 --> 00:28:42,462 its most astonishing revelation yet. 262 00:28:43,863 --> 00:28:46,646 And it comes from a part of the team based at 263 00:28:46,681 --> 00:28:50,704 Rothamsted Research Institute just outside London. 264 00:28:51,802 --> 00:28:55,814 The key discovery emerge from a surprising source. 265 00:28:56,504 --> 00:28:59,577 Radar. 266 00:29:01,451 --> 00:29:06,442 Our radar has a vertical pointing beam, and it illuminates a narrow column of the sky above, 267 00:29:06,562 --> 00:29:09,074 like shining a powerful spotlight up at in the sky, 268 00:29:09,366 --> 00:29:13,525 and we are able to detect individual insects as they fly through that beam. 269 00:29:14,370 --> 00:29:18,880 The signal is so detailed it can even help identify the species. 270 00:29:20,498 --> 00:29:23,000 And during the autumn disappearance, 271 00:29:23,035 --> 00:29:26,751 the radar picked up large numbers of Painted Ladies. 272 00:29:27,595 --> 00:29:30,319 They won't dying out, they were on the move, 273 00:29:30,822 --> 00:29:34,039 and they were flying at astonishing heights. 274 00:29:34,884 --> 00:29:37,576 What we find was, that in fact the Painted Ladies were highly abounded, 275 00:29:37,995 --> 00:29:41,153 at heights of three, four, five hundreds meter above the ground. 276 00:29:44,604 --> 00:29:49,028 At this great height, they were invisible to observers down below. 277 00:29:49,629 --> 00:29:52,576 This explained their disappearance. 278 00:29:52,903 --> 00:29:57,651 But the Butterflies had their own very good reason to travel at such altitudes. 279 00:29:59,388 --> 00:30:02,472 One of the benefits of flying at three or four hundreds meter above the ground, 280 00:30:02,507 --> 00:30:05,428 is that the wind speed-air much faster than the air ground level, 281 00:30:05,447 --> 00:30:08,318 so the insects are able to get a lot of assistance from the wind, 282 00:30:08,421 --> 00:30:11,327 and travel much faster then they would in their own powered flight, 283 00:30:11,594 --> 00:30:15,997 and we see these Painted Ladies traveling at 50 or even 70 miles an hour. 284 00:30:19,819 --> 00:30:22,600 As well as measuring the phenomenal speed of their flight, 285 00:30:23,053 --> 00:30:26,111 the radar also revealed its direction. 286 00:30:26,297 --> 00:30:29,447 They were heading south. 287 00:30:30,264 --> 00:30:33,312 So where will they go? 288 00:30:34,203 --> 00:30:39,325 The astonishing answer came from Constantise far-flung network of observers, 289 00:30:39,911 --> 00:30:43,420 and the crucial piece of data was gathered in Africa. 290 00:30:44,008 --> 00:30:47,445 Some exploration in Africa, in October, November, 291 00:30:47,507 --> 00:30:52,009 have shown that there is a huge arrival of Butterflies at that moment. -really? 292 00:30:52,309 --> 00:30:56,988 So, by the end of the summer, the newborn Butterflies in Europe 293 00:30:57,444 --> 00:31:00,779 are start to migrate a little way back to Africa. 294 00:31:01,347 --> 00:31:03,546 Really? -ya. 295 00:31:03,931 --> 00:31:09,477 A final generation riding on high altitude winds makes an immense journey 296 00:31:09,639 --> 00:31:14,580 of up to 3,000 miles to West Africa, in just a matter of days. 297 00:31:17,836 --> 00:31:20,550 Observers on the ground, and radar in the air, 298 00:31:20,701 --> 00:31:24,433 had found proof of an amazing migration cycle. 299 00:31:25,663 --> 00:31:28,907 Just in one year the all cycle is made, 300 00:31:29,193 --> 00:31:32,895 and is the succession of these 6 generations moving about 301 00:31:33,709 --> 00:31:39,701 5,000 kilometer in one direction, and 5,000 in another direction. 302 00:31:41,822 --> 00:31:44,585 This migration, is in fact the longest made by 303 00:31:44,620 --> 00:31:47,699 any insect on the Planet so far discovered. 304 00:31:49,796 --> 00:31:54,895 Some insects face a very different challenge, not fly long distances, 305 00:31:55,896 --> 00:31:58,813 but flying in the dark. 306 00:32:15,888 --> 00:32:21,441 A Light Trap can attract some of the most remarkable of this nocturnal flyers. 307 00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:29,015 Moths. 308 00:32:30,836 --> 00:32:35,031 Moths probably evolve to fly at night to avoid predators. 309 00:32:36,568 --> 00:32:41,665 Their eyes are adapted to low light, but they also use a second, highly developed, sense, 310 00:32:42,292 --> 00:32:45,290 smell. 311 00:32:47,237 --> 00:32:50,955 This is a male Moon Moth. 312 00:32:51,818 --> 00:32:56,281 Moths overlap their two pairs of wings in just the same way Butterflies do, 313 00:32:57,036 --> 00:33:02,113 and this particular moth is very special. it has an extremely short life. 314 00:33:02,258 --> 00:33:06,102 He will only live for a week. it won't even feed. 315 00:33:07,011 --> 00:33:10,670 Its only object is to find a female. 316 00:33:11,158 --> 00:33:16,302 And it does that with these remarkable feather-like antennae. 317 00:33:18,801 --> 00:33:22,729 The female emits a particular characteristic scent, 318 00:33:23,183 --> 00:33:28,828 and with those antenna, the male can sense it from as much as a mile away. 319 00:33:29,892 --> 00:33:36,168 He then take-off and fly upwind, until eventually it find the source. 320 00:33:44,342 --> 00:33:49,292 Moths with their combined front and rear wings, are also excellent flyers. 321 00:33:52,622 --> 00:33:56,542 Some live longer, and so need to fly to find food. 322 00:33:58,052 --> 00:34:01,739 This Sphinx Moth favorite food is nectar. 323 00:34:03,738 --> 00:34:07,085 It can even hover as it drinks. 324 00:34:15,748 --> 00:34:18,721 So, by overlapping their two pairs of wings, 325 00:34:18,975 --> 00:34:22,985 Butterflies and Moths has become very competent flyers. 326 00:34:23,244 --> 00:34:26,461 But there is one group of flying insects that has change 327 00:34:27,109 --> 00:34:31,244 the back pair of wings into something quite, quite different. 328 00:34:31,350 --> 00:34:37,340 Something that enable them to perform the most extraordinary aerial gymnastics. 329 00:34:47,103 --> 00:34:51,858 For the final chapter in our story of flying insects, I'm returning to London. 330 00:34:53,136 --> 00:34:57,988 The urban jungle and its human inhabitants provide plenty of shelter and food 331 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,627 for a particularly adaptable and numerous kind of insect. 332 00:35:05,287 --> 00:35:08,219 Thank you very much. thank you. 333 00:35:09,908 --> 00:35:13,273 An inviting meal like this one, well, I'm quite sure, 334 00:35:13,498 --> 00:35:18,404 very soon attract a flying diner, that is one of the most remarkable 335 00:35:18,637 --> 00:35:21,664 of all insects aeronauts. 336 00:35:23,664 --> 00:35:26,630 It is, of course, a fly. 337 00:35:26,907 --> 00:35:31,281 This particular kind, a blowfly, occurs all over the world. 338 00:35:31,788 --> 00:35:37,463 And its ancestors have been buzzing around for a least 250 million years. 339 00:35:40,733 --> 00:35:45,000 Flies are so common, we tend to dismiss them as just irritating pests, 340 00:35:45,574 --> 00:35:49,366 but their flying abilities are truly remarkable. 341 00:35:49,658 --> 00:35:53,817 Watch what happen if I try and swat this one with the menu. 342 00:35:58,701 --> 00:36:04,834 Slowing down the action by forty times, we can see how astonishingly agile flies are. 343 00:36:09,643 --> 00:36:13,969 It make its escape in the time it takes me to blink my eye. 344 00:36:16,290 --> 00:36:20,930 The ability to twist and turn at such high speeds, and so evade enemies, 345 00:36:21,281 --> 00:36:24,509 has made аlies the global success that they are. 346 00:36:31,548 --> 00:36:34,528 They are the jet fighters of the insect world, 347 00:36:34,681 --> 00:36:38,363 and they owe their maneuver ability not to the shape of their wings, 348 00:36:38,534 --> 00:36:45,072 nor the power of their muscles, but to a set of highly advanced flight sensors. 349 00:36:47,427 --> 00:36:52,146 A fly has its own version of a fighter pilot's instrument panel. 350 00:36:55,083 --> 00:37:00,179 Providing constant updates on speed, altitude and direction of travel. 351 00:37:05,535 --> 00:37:08,550 A fly gathers this flight data through its eyes, 352 00:37:09,606 --> 00:37:12,682 and these are among the best in the business. 353 00:37:14,063 --> 00:37:19,148 They can process visual information arouтв ten times as fast as our own eyes. 354 00:37:20,789 --> 00:37:24,183 But in high speed maneuvers, even a fly's eyes 355 00:37:24,218 --> 00:37:28,146 struggle with one crucial piece of flight data. 356 00:37:29,803 --> 00:37:33,714 The angle of its body in the air and the way it changes. 357 00:37:34,027 --> 00:37:38,971 Information that a human pilot will get from an instrument based on a gyroscope. 358 00:37:41,776 --> 00:37:46,493 And that is essential if you are going to pull off a stunt like this one. 359 00:37:55,013 --> 00:37:58,902 Fortunately, flies not only have eyes to guide them. 360 00:37:59,744 --> 00:38:04,466 They also have a second and even more remarkable set of sensors. 361 00:38:04,841 --> 00:38:09,434 One that is derived from that original four-wing design. 362 00:38:13,258 --> 00:38:16,564 A fly only has a single pair of wings. 363 00:38:20,285 --> 00:38:23,668 The rear pair have been converted into something else. 364 00:38:24,785 --> 00:38:28,595 A tiny club-like appendage known as a haltere. 365 00:38:30,317 --> 00:38:34,661 This surprisingly sophisticated organ alerts the fly for changes 366 00:38:34,821 --> 00:38:37,953 for the position of its body in the air. 367 00:38:40,115 --> 00:38:43,764 As the fly takes off, each haltere begin to beat up and down, 368 00:38:44,001 --> 00:38:47,325 and so fast, it immediately becomes a blur. 369 00:38:50,848 --> 00:38:56,082 But in slow motion, we can see that it swings back and forth like a pendulum. 370 00:38:58,159 --> 00:39:00,721 To understand how the haltere works, 371 00:39:00,821 --> 00:39:04,089 we need to track its movement in the midair roll. 372 00:39:07,436 --> 00:39:11,689 The weighty tip of the haltere has a kind of moving inertia, 373 00:39:12,298 --> 00:39:16,766 so that it remains on the same swinging path as the fly banks. 374 00:39:18,210 --> 00:39:21,180 Now, the angle between the body and the haltere changes, 375 00:39:21,454 --> 00:39:23,786 and the base is put under strain. 376 00:39:24,134 --> 00:39:27,852 This triggers sensors which register the roll. 377 00:39:32,745 --> 00:39:38,203 The fly can then adjust its wing beat to correct any imbalance, however extreme. 378 00:39:41,586 --> 00:39:45,278 New studies into a second remarkable use of the haltere signal 379 00:39:45,619 --> 00:39:48,783 are taking place at London Imperial College. 380 00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:57,106 In the department of Bioengineering, experts are studying Blow Flies 381 00:39:57,501 --> 00:40:01,137 to see if their natural flight mechanics can improve the performance 382 00:40:01,778 --> 00:40:04,815 of man-made flyers, like this drone. 383 00:40:07,857 --> 00:40:13,002 Flies are incredibly maneuverable, and if you look at their performance, 384 00:40:13,565 --> 00:40:17,182 one chasing another one, it's really hardly 385 00:40:17,265 --> 00:40:21,168 any other animal that can match this sort of aerodynamic performance. 386 00:40:21,596 --> 00:40:25,677 Holger has devised an experiment to investigate an intriguing connection 387 00:40:26,250 --> 00:40:31,533 between a fly's halteres and its other key flight sensor, its eyes. 388 00:40:37,679 --> 00:40:42,382 A tiny motor simulate a series of high speed midair rolls. 389 00:40:43,841 --> 00:40:47,517 The way the fly then reacts is recorded on a specialist camera 390 00:40:47,949 --> 00:40:50,982 which can replayed the action in slow motion. 391 00:40:53,961 --> 00:40:58,738 As you can see if you look closely, the head of the fly is maintained level, 392 00:40:59,556 --> 00:41:02,859 the body is rotating, and to maintain level gaze 393 00:41:02,894 --> 00:41:05,976 they have to counter-rotate the head. 394 00:41:07,099 --> 00:41:11,598 Keeping the eyes level is vital if they're to gather accurate flight information. 395 00:41:12,010 --> 00:41:16,835 And the halteres has been identified as the crucial sensor that makes this possible. 396 00:41:17,643 --> 00:41:22,803 Visual system alone will just be to slow, that's where actually the halteres come in. 397 00:41:23,172 --> 00:41:26,740 The halteres are extremely fast in terms of their responses, 398 00:41:27,181 --> 00:41:33,161 and they are immediate, well, signals, that are then sent to the next motor system, 399 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,672 and to the flight motor system, they are the first really 400 00:41:37,123 --> 00:41:40,824 to compensate for any disturbances, and if that has happened, 401 00:41:41,307 --> 00:41:46,211 the visual system is perfectly well situated to cope with the rest. 402 00:41:49,648 --> 00:41:55,096 So, Flies lost a pair of wings, but gain an extraordinary new flight sensor 403 00:41:55,405 --> 00:41:59,251 that made them the most advanced flyers in the insect world. 404 00:42:05,982 --> 00:42:11,774 Flight has enabled the insects as a whole to become an astonishing global success. 405 00:42:12,610 --> 00:42:15,328 There are twice as many insects species, 406 00:42:15,363 --> 00:42:18,851 then there are of all other animals put together. 407 00:42:19,436 --> 00:42:26,221 Theirs is a remarkable evolutionary story that spans over 320 million years. 408 00:42:27,525 --> 00:42:31,058 From the first four-wing creatures that emerge from the water, 409 00:42:32,122 --> 00:42:36,782 to the armour-plated beetles which colonise land away from water. 410 00:42:39,068 --> 00:42:42,580 The иutterflies with their huge colorful wings. 411 00:42:44,781 --> 00:42:49,176 And the stunningly skillful aerobatic flies. 412 00:42:50,862 --> 00:42:55,633 But skill may not be enough, sometimes sheer size counts. 413 00:42:56,305 --> 00:43:01,096 The insects had the skies for themselves for around 100 million years, 414 00:43:01,787 --> 00:43:06,814 but then a new group of animal appeared, animals that could build bigger bodies, 415 00:43:07,378 --> 00:43:12,804 and they were to lift the techniques of flying to even greater heights. 416 00:43:15,297 --> 00:43:18,240 As our journey through time continues, we encounter 417 00:43:18,275 --> 00:43:23,139 the extraordinary pioneers of a new wave of larger flyers. 418 00:43:26,026 --> 00:43:29,132 Monstrous winged reptiles. 419 00:43:31,743 --> 00:43:37,492 Strange feather dinosaurs, whose ventures into the air led to the birds. 420 00:43:40,727 --> 00:43:44,783 And a group of mammals that conquered the pitch-black of the night. 421 00:43:46,465 --> 00:43:49,610 The bats.