Micro Monsters with David Attenborough S01E06 · Colony

Overview

Watching the fascinating display of leafcutter ants at the Natural History Museum in London is one of my favourite ways to while away a few hours, but David Attenborough is operating on a much grander scale here in the last in the series. In Argentina he observes some cousins of the leafcutters who are part of a community so vast it spans an entire continent. It’s one of the mandible-dropping facts in a look at one of the key inventions of arthropods: colonies. From termites and honey bees to the leafcutters, it seems that if you want to get ahead, you move to the big city.

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. Conflict2013-06-15 · 22mDavid Attenborough employs the latest technologies to explore the violence, rivalries and deadly weaponry existing within the world of bugs. This first episode examines the surviva
2. 2 2. Predator2013-06-22 · 23mDavid Attenborough continues his bug-eyed view of the world of creepy-crawlies, revealing how predators defuse the defences of their prey. Highlights include the cockroach wasp, bu
3. 3 3. Courtship2013-06-29 · 23mA further selection of creepy-crawly close-ups, focusing on courtship in the bug world. Highlights include scorpions shaking their booty, the perfume-wearing nasonia wasp and the t
4. 4 4. Reproduction2013-07-06 · 22mA close-up view of sex, bug-style, as David Attenborough talks viewers through the different ways in which creepy-crawlies reproduce. Size matters for the minuscule male orb spider
5. 5 5. Family2013-07-13 · 23mWhile most of the series has focused on conflict, this episode is all about co-operation. The suitably named social spiders spin one enormous, 30m web for the whole colony, a queen
6. 6 6. Colony2013-07-20 · 23mWatching the fascinating display of leafcutter ants at the Natural History Museum in London is one of my favourite ways to while away a few hours, but David Attenborough is operati