BBC - Science & Nature - Life In The Undergrowth

17 September 2014
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Life In The Undergrowth – top ten video clips

Watch the best bits from Life In The Undergrowth as chosen by the TV production team.

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Programme 1: Invasion Of The Land

Mating leopard slugs "One of the most extraordinary things I've seen in the natural world. When people see this they'll look upon the humble garden slug with a new eye."		Dancing springtails "This clip always makes people laugh. These creatures are as small as a full stop and yet they still have charm." Peter Bassett, Producer

Programme 2: Taking To The Air

Titan beetle "The largest insect in the world - but its life history is still a mystery."		The moth and the lantern bug "An amazingly enterprising moth - this new behaviour has only just been discovered!" Mike Salisbury, Series Producer

Programme 3: The Silk Spinners

Trapdoor spider "David had tried to attract spiders at lots of holes without success. When a spider did jump out, David was momentarily lost for words - a rare sight."		An amazing web "We saw the spider ratchet up the tension in its web. We knew what was supposed to happen, but when it 'bungee jumped' down on its prey, it gave us all a surprise." Bridget Appleby, Producer

Programme 4: Intimate Relations

Feather-legged bug "This is such a recent discovery that scientists at the Australian Museum are still trying to work out what type of chemical smell the bug uses to attract the ants. I really like the way this sequence builds to a shocking end."		Bot fly "Bot flies are terrible! Their larvae feed on flesh, including humans'. They use other flies as couriers to transport their eggs. We filmed them catching house flies in Brazil. It took three weeks to get this shot." Stephen Dunleavy, Producer

Programme 5: Supersocieties

Giant Asiatic honeybees "Placing David next to tens of thousands of stinging bees was bad enough but doing it nearly 200ft up a tree meant careful planning. And it paid off. I'd witnessed the bees' Mexican wave response before but never knew the reason for it."		Mangrove ants "Filming these ants involved days on end in mosquito-infested mangrove swamps. But it was worth it - the ants were real characters and one was particularly good at swimming, so we nicknamed it 'Ian Thorpe'." Stephen Dunleavy, Producer

TV programmes


		Life In The Undergrowth homepage Programme summaries

Elsewhere on bbc.co.uk


		Fly Guides A behind the scenes look at how the series was filmed. Life in a ditch Looking for Britain's largest beetle. Insect chatter Listen in, on BBC News. Get closer to mini beasts Make a moth magnet with CBBC. Mastery of the air Find out how insects fly. BBC News One of the world's largest insects in an Oxford museum. Wildfacts More about spiders. Ants can't hurt you, can they? Army ants can turn a tropical forest into a battlefield.

Elsewhere on the web


		Buglife Find out about leopard slugs and springtails. Natural History Museum More about springtails. Butterfly Conservation An introduction to moths. Natural History Museum The world of spiders. Buglife More about spiders and other silk spinners. Arkive Pictures and video of British invertebrates. Australian Museum More about the feather-legged assassin bug. Natural History Museum Ants and termites - the real kings of the jungle. Australian ants online Find out about life in a colony or how ants find food. Arkive Find out which invertebrates are globally endangered. National Insect Week Find your local insect group plus activites and events. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites