“These two worlds, ours and theirs (invertebrates), influence one another to an extraordinary degree. If we and the rest of the backboned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if they were to disappear, the land’s ecosystems would collapse. For the fact is, they were the pioneers. The first animals of any kind to colonize the lands of the earth.”
Life in the Undergrowth continues Sir David Attenborough’s BBC “Life” series by looking at the world under our feet. He uses high tech cameras to reveal the world of invertebrates (insects lacking a spinal column). This excellent 5 hour miniseries comes from Warner Brothers on 2 discs.
Episode 1: Invasion of the Land: Sir David give a short introduction to the miniature worlds he’s to explore thanks to modern technology and explores the evolution of invertebrates. He explores the miniature land of the Millipedes, the Velvet Worm, Springtails, How the Harvestman spider protects its eggs, and Scorpions.
Episode 2: Taking to the Air: This episode covers flying insects, including Mayflies, a look at fossilized Dragonflies, Cascade Damselflies (who amazingly fly in waterfalls), Butterflies, Bumblebees, and Cicadas. This episode has the Titan beetle, perhaps the world’s biggest insect.
Episode 3: The Silk Spinners: Sir David explores the world of the silk spinning invertebrates including New Zealand glow-worms and the expert silk spinners, spiders.
Sir David and the Titan beetle
Episode 4: Intimate Relations: No, it’s not about THAT (but by now you’ve seen lots of invertebrate nookie) but about the relationship between invertebrates and other species, both in how they benefit each other and utilize them in their mating.
Episode 5: Supersocieties: The highly organized societies of invertebrates and the conflicts, power struggles, and mutinies that occur in them. Ants, bees, and termites are highlighted in this episode. The highlight comes at the end when Mantabele ants raid a termite colony.
Life in the Undergrowth is a truly fascinating series of documentaries. According to Sir David this is the first time that technology has been small enough to take a close look at some of these creatures. He indeed does place tiny cameras into the underground dwellings of a lot of very small creatures.
Sir David, 79 at the time Life in the Undergrowth was filmed, narrates in his crisp British tones and is quite a likeable fellow. He’s been making such nature documentaries for 50 years and is scheduled for another to air in 2007 (Life in Cold Blood, about reptiles). He even gets extremely close to some of these beasties. You wonder if the ants are going to carry him away he seems so close and it seems really scary when he’s hauled up into a tree to see a bee nest (which he mentions could sting through the protective garment he’s wearing).
Alcon Blue butterfly
Life in the Undergrowth is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a 30 minute interview with producer Mike Salisbury, a 25 audio track selection of the show’s score (not mentioned on the back of the packaging), and trailers for additional nature documentaries (although not the other “Life” shows).
If you’re a fan of nature documentaries or the other shows in this series then you definitely want to purchase this one. Other interested parties may want to give it a rental, but be prepared to be fascinated.
Life in the Undergrowth is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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