Narrator: ln the world of monster bugs, life is cheap.
Ruthless killers roam the underworld.
There's no mercy and no half measures.
They're like an entire team of wrestlers in one animal.
Narrator: When bugs go to war...
They're incredibly effective predators.
Narrator: ...it's kill or be killed.
Beneath a verdant rainforest canopy,
there's a hidden world, a bug's world.
ln truth, it's more like a collection of war-like nations,
each ready to defend its territory against any invader.
What happens when a deadly tree scorpion
invades a green-ant kingdom?
lt's a call to arms, to defend the empire.
This plant is about to become green-ant territory.
ln less than a day, they will swarm over its leaves
and bend them to their will.
lt's empire building by an incredible society
that thinks as one.
Dr. Fry: Colonies are interesting things.
This is where hundreds of individuals
behave like a single organism.
Narrator: They may think as one,
but they're divided into specialist teams.
There are workers, porters,
guards,
and beneath this swarm of servants, a queen.
Dr. Fry: ln an ant colony,
the queen is by far the most valuable thing.
She sits there day in, day out pumping out hundreds of eggs.
Narrator: Construction on the queen's castle is under way.
lt's an ambitious undertaking,
but every green ant is a born engineer,
with equipment to match.
Up front, its mandibles are like a hydraulic press
lined with razor teeth.
On a human scale, they could lift a seven-ton truck.
ln the ant's world,
they can slice off a limb or hold up a roof.
lmagine us being able to lift something
hundreds of times our body weight using just our mouth.
Narrator: With their jaws and legs,
ants become heavy machinery,
pulling massive leaves into a cocoon.
For adhesive, they use silk spun from larvae,
carried around like living bags of glue.
But this Army Corps of Engineers
isn't just building a new kingdom,
they're defending it.
For other bugs, it's become a no-go zone.
Any breach is met with overwhelming force.
The strength of green ants is in numbers.
While some of them will pin the prey down,
others will come by and bite it over and over and over again
until it's defeated.
Narrator: Like a crack commando unit,
a squad immobilizes the beetle
while others start slicing it up.
Green ants can capture and butcher a beast in just minutes.
But some creatures can be too hot to handle.
Like this killer descended from the first bugs
to crawl on land 300 million years ago --
the tree scorpion.
lt's a wily opponent built for a quick kill.
lt has size and sting on its side.
lt captures prey by stinging it with its venom,
grabbing it with the pinchers,
and then tearing it apart and eating it.
Narrator: The tree scorpion stalks the lower rainforest canopy.
There's nowhere it's scared to go.
lt fears no one.
Dr. Rayor: Scorpions are hunters.
Scorpions will basically take
whatever they're able to successfully capture --
insects, other scorpions --
they'll attack a wide range of different animals.
Narrator: lts confidence and lethal advantage
come from super sensitive hairs on its legs and body.
The slightest movement registers,
even the flap of a fly's wing.
And leading it straight to the kill zone
are sensors beneath its body called pectines.
Dr. Rayor: These pectines -- think of them as combs --
are extremely sensitive to substrate vibration.
So as they're walking along,
these combs are responding to vibrations from the ground.
Narrator: The tree scorpion has bizarre table manners.
lts mouth has claws.
This creature knows how to look after itself in the rainforest,
but how will it fare in a border dispute?
Nearby, the ant empire is expanding overnight.
The tree scorpion's territory is under threat.
And any dispute will quickly turn into all-out war.
When a green-ant colony attacks a much larger animal,
anything that can be bitten will be bitten.
Narrator: When green ants invade your territory,
they don't negotiate.
They simply arrive in their thousands
and start building an empire.
There's no diplomacy, no discussion.
They owe allegiance only to their queen.
Dr. Fry: Green ants are extremely territorial.
They will protect their queen at all costs.
Narrator: The tree scorpion shows no such respect for the queen,
nor her faithful subjects.
lt's been spotted by a lone scout.
lt's David versus Goliath.
But no one's told the green ant.
No matter how futile the attack,
it's programmed to lock on till it's full.
The scout is easily dispatched,
but it has sent out a chemical distress signal.
[ siren wails ]
lt's like sounding an air-raid siren inside the colony.
The defensive strategy of the green ants
is built all around teamwork.
Sending out chemical messages that will bring in lots of ants.
You'll have hundreds of them pouring into that one area.
Narrator: Ant numbers swell quickly.
Each attaches itself,
trying to outmaneuver the giant intruder.
Sensing an advantage,
the ants deploy their weapon of mass destruction,
a cloud of formic acid.
Sprayed from each ant's abdomen,
the cloud is like pouring molten lava on the scorpion's wounds.
lt lashes out.
And its victims are piling up.
Medic ants deal with the wounded.
But more soldiers swarm in to replace the dead and dying.
The onslaught overcomes the scorpion's last defenses.
The ants are able to hold on to different parts of the scorpion
so it isn't able to sting.
There's a limit to how many it's able to grab with its pinchers.
Narrator: The scorpion is pinned, helpless.
The ants then set about dismembering their victim,
chewing through its joints.
They start carrying away the ultimate trophy of war --
the scorpion's stinger.
There's nothing their victim can do.
Once it loses its sting, its fight is over.
Many ants have made the ultimate sacrifice.
That's how the colony works.
One individual dies.
An empire is defended.
Long live the queen.
Many bugs lurk in the shadow lands,
hidden places where evil deeds are done in secret.
But with so many bugs in the world,
they'll never be left alone for long.
What happens when a white-tailed spider
meets the shadow world's cellar spider?
Someone will disturb the peace.
Meet the cellar spider.
lts thin, pole-like limbs
make it look somewhat fragile, even weak.
But nothing's further from the truth.
The cellar spiders are actually pretty good
at killing other spiders.
They don't necessarily specialize
on killing other spiders,
but they're really good at it when they get the chance.
Narrator: From their hidden vantage points,
they pick off passing prey...
Small or large --
it makes no difference.
And those spindly legs
with their multiple sections...
Have the clearance of a monster truck
and are as nimble as high-speed knitting needles.
Dr. Rayor: Their legs are long and lean
and effective for keeping everything at arm's length.
Narrator: They can immobilize rivals from a safe distance
by wrapping them in silk...
Before moving in for the kill.
Their fangs are tiny but pack mean venom.
Elsewhere on the rocky outcrop,
another spider prepares for action.
Compared to the cellar spider, she's a bruiser.
The white-tailed spider.
The white-tailed spider is a wandering assassin.
This deadly stalker lurks in the shadows.
Narrator: A white-tail is a master spider killer.
She's three times the weight of the cellar spider.
ln spider land,
she's a super heavyweight fighter.
Even a night-stalking commando like the wolf spider
can be overpowered in an instant.
The white-tailed spider's main weapon is surprise.
lt rushes out of the shadows to deliver a fatal bite.
Narrator: The white-tail pumps digestive juices
through her victims, then sucks them dry.
Few spiders walk away from the white-tail.
Narrator: These are the shadow lands of the bug world,
hidden places
where dirty deeds are done under cover of darkness.
This white-tailed spider is looking for an easy kill.
She's checking out a rock ledge
that happens to be a cellar spider's home.
And the delicate homeowner will defend its territory
to the death...
No matter how huge the invader.
The cellar spider starts a war dance.
One of the things that cellar spiders do
to avoid being attacked by predators
is they swirl on their legs.
Another thing that they might do is pump up and down,
and they disappear
because they're moving so fast they become invisible.
Narrator: The white-tail isn't so easily fooled.
She holds her ground.
Conflict is inevitable.
Dr. Fry: For the white-tail spider,
it's all about getting the first bite in.
Narrator: But the cellar spider moves first.
lt flicks the white-tail onto its web.
The white-tail tries to regain its footing,
but the cellar spider goes into silk-spinning overdrive.
From a safe distance,
its legs lasso the white-tail six times every second.
But the white-tail is strong. She keeps breaking free.
Cellar spider silk isn't the strongest
nor stickiest in the spider world,
but there's a lot of it.
And every throw counts.
Hundreds of silk ropes entangle the white-tail.
ln a desperate last effort,
she tries to slash her way to freedom with her huge fangs.
The white-tail spider will use its fangs
to cut through the silk.
lf it can get out, it will run for its life.
Narrator: But the cellar spider counters, hoisting her victim higher.
lt's spinning too much silk,
and the white-tail's jaws may not be enough.
Thousands of silk ropes finally immobilize the white-tail...
...enough for the cellar spider to move in for the kill.
lt delivers its deadly payload
and leaves the venom to do its work.
A delicate spinner outguns a big brute.
And the shadow lands are quiet once more.
But they won't be for long.
Many bugs are forced to adapt their lifestyle
to suit their environment.
But some are just plain ornery.
They modify their environment to suit their own needs.
The result is a monster minefield.
What happens when a trap-jaw ant
falls in with a ravenous ant lion?
The Earth will open up.
For some creatures,
a sandy environment is a problem to be avoided.
But for one strange bug,
it's the perfect place to set a trap.
They're relatively small animals with huge sickle-shaped jaws,
and they're really, really good predators.
Narrator: The ant lion loves the sand.
Better still, it loves moving sand.
lt's king of terraforming.
Just a quarter-inch long,
it can transform landscapes overnight.
The ant lion is often called a doodlebug.
lt's actually the larval form
of a flying insect called a lacewing.
But before it heads for the skies,
it's stuck on the ground with a lot of earth moving to do.
Burrowing in backwards,
the ant lion creates a pit
by flicking up sand from a central hole.
What they're doing is they're gradually
digging a cone-shaped pit.
Narrator: The ant lion is a masterpiece of devious engineering.
Victims simply stumble in...
And never leave.
Not far from the ant lion sand trap,
another predator is on the hunt,
a street fighter with a spring-loaded weapon...
A trap-jaw ant.
Trap-jaws have lean bodies with muscular shapes,
huge heads, huge eyes,
and these massive mandibles that snap shut like a bear trap.
Narrator: lts spring-loaded jaws lock open at 1 80 degrees,
like a crossbow.
Then, on contact, they slam shut.
These jaws are the speeding bullet of the natural world.
They are literally the fastest-moving body part
of any animal.
They snap shut at 1 45 miles an hour.
Narrator: And there's more --
a venom-packed sting on its abdomen.
Trap-jaws will use their sting or their mandibles first,
depending on which type of prey they're trying to capture.
Narrator: Today, some trap-jaw ants are on the hunt.
They can slam shut their jaws
faster than any other creature on Earth,
but they still need to watch where they walk.
There are death traps everywhere.
Ant lion pits.
Part sinkhole...
And part quicksand.
They bury bugs alive.
As the ant walks into the edge of the pit,
it's just so steep that they can't maintain their balance
at the edge.
Narrator: When the ant tries to escape,
the ant lion showers sand from below.
The ant lion flips soil up
and helps cause a small avalanche
that helps carry the ant into the center of the pit.
Narrator: The ant runs for its life...
lt's a lucky escape.
But the ant lion won't have to wait long for another victim.
lt launches its attack.
The trap jaw can't even see its foe.
Under the sand, the ant lion has locked on,
pulling its victim down.
Those huge trap jaws are useless.
And, from below, the ant lion has already begun
sucking its victim's insides out.
The trap-jaw disappears without trace.
Sometimes, in the bug's world,
the best weapon you can use is the environment itself.
And if your weapon can double as a grave, so much the better.
ln a bug's life, there's little room for social graces.
Manners aren't required,
and social skills --
well, that's left pretty much to the ant crowd.
But there comes a time when even the meanest bug
needs to accommodate a neighbor, for a short while.
What happens when a brown house spider
and a redback spider live too close for comfort?
The neighborhood will never be the same.
This log has become a sort of bug-housing estate.
Residents come and go.
Visitors drop by, get eaten.
Suburban life goes on.
Dr. Fry: Sometimes you'll have several animals
sitting in very close pro ximity to each other
where it's a bit of a standoff.
''l can kill you, you can kill me.
Who's gonna make the first move?''
Narrator: This redback
is tolerating a neighboring brown house spider.
They're actually biological cousins,
but keep to themselves,
even though it's hard to tell whose web is whose.
The redback has snared a beetle 1 0 times her own weight.
Her web is one of the stickiest and strongest
in the spider business.
lf it were scaled up to the thickness of climbing rope,
it could snare a jumbo jet in flight.
Next door, a brown house spider has her hands full.
She's landed a super-sized meal with a dangerous kick.
Like the redback, she combines a sticky web with fast wrapping.
Dr. Fry: lt sets up trap lines in its lair.
Once detected, it'll drop down
and attack with a barrage of silk.
Narrator: Her fangs are small and deliver powerful venom.
But this time,
she may have bitten off more than she can chew.
Another neighbor, a fellow brown house,
thinks the grasshopper is in her web.
lt's a neighborhood dispute that's about to turn ugly.
You've got spiders that are eating the same prey
and are competing for food in a relatively small space,
and at some point these animals are gonna come in conflict.
Narrator: Neither brown house has any intention of backing down.
The neighbor moves first,
and starts a wrapping frenzy.
Not only has she lost her meal,
the original brown house is now losing her life
as she's bound and gagged at her own dinner party.
A deadly bite seals the deal.
One brown house spider has just killed another one,
even though they're the same animal.
But this is not unusual in nature.
Fratricide, or cannibalism, is quite common.
Just because you are related doesn't mean you're not dinner.
Narrator: But the neighborhood dispute is about to escalate,
as the redback from next door joins the fray.
Given that they're close to one another,
this face-off is going to end in the death
of one of these spiders --
but which one, that's up to chance.
The neighborhood fight is about to get even nastier,
on the world's stickiest tightrope.
Each spider tries to stay clear of the other's spinning legs.
The first to start their wrap of death wins.
They're so evenly matched
the tiniest false move will spell disaster.
The redback puts one foot wrong.
She's stuck.
Seizing her chance, the brown house spins furiously,
wrapping her opponent's legs.
The brown house spider's most deadly weapon is its silk.
lt has these long, combed legs
that it can use to throw it forward like a deadly crochet.
Narrator: With all her strength, the redback can't break free.
She's cocooned alive.
Dr. Fry: The brown house spider's fangs are very small,
so it'll only bite once the prey is firmly secured with the silk.
Narrator: The brown house has already had her appetizer.
The redback makes a tasty entree.
Now the neighborhood bruiser sits back and waits
for dessert to come by.
Beneath the scorching desert sun,
few creatures brave the outdoors.
Until the rain comes.
Then, the desert comes alive with creepy crawlies.
What happens when a desert centipede
emerges to find a desert trapdoor spider?
There will be bloodshed.
Most of the time,
this trapdoor spider remains in the underworld.
But some rain brings it into the open
for a long-awaited drink.
lt's actually an amazing thing to see,
because so many animals have been waiting for the rain
that you can literally watch animals come running out,
and the trapdoor does the same thing.
Narrator: lt's a rare outing,
and something she's not too comfortable with.
Without the advantage of her deep burrow,
she's vulnerable to predators.
Even though the trapdoor spider is a relatively large spider
and a terrifically efficient predator,
they're not all that aggressive spiders.
Many of the trapdoors stay underground.
They're not partying spiders
that get out and wander around a whole lot,
but, basically, they're living fairly reclusive lives.
Narrator: lt's reclusive because the desert trapdoor...
ls an ambush specialist...
With two giant fangs
that can pierce the toughest ex oskeleton.
Trapdoor spider have quite large parallel fangs that strike down.
lt rears the front end of its body up,
and then strikes.
Narrator: The trapdoor invests a lot of effort
in building its home,
so it's going to stay there for most of its life.
Desert trapdoor spiders are good hunters.
The spider is sitting
with its legs touching the different lines coming in,
and is essentially monitoring the situation around its burrow.
Narrator: Any passing insect is fair game.
Gripped in an eight-legged vice, this cockroach stands no chance.
lts body is ripped open,
and the bug is turned into lunch.
The trapdoor is a formidable killer.
But tonight, the rains bring out another.
An entire street gang rolled into one --
the desert centipede.
The desert centipede is the baddest of the bad.
He's aggressive, fast, big, mean.
He wanders the desert like a serial killer
looking for more victims to add to his list.
Narrator: With 42 legs and a body some 5 inches long,
this desert centipede is the type
other bugs cross the street for.
lf there were maximum-security prisons for bad bugs,
this guy would be locked up for life.
He's just a natural-born killer.
Narrator: Each foot is capped with a sharp spike
that pins enemies in a death-grip.
Up front, two huge claws rip flesh
and inject venom simultaneously.
This guy's big weapon is his extremely potent venom,
which he delivers with these unique modified legs
that are claws dedicated to delivering venom.
Narrator: And there's rarely time to escape.
Dr. Fry: Desert centipedes are pretty handy
at pinning down their prey.
They're like an entire team of wrestlers in one animal.
They wrap around, hold it immobile,
and then deliver their venom with a single bite.
Narrator: This desert thug also has incredible senses.
Two huge antennae pick up chemical scent trails.
Dr. Fry: They have this extraordinary ability
to follow a chemical trail ruthlessly, persistently.
Once they find it, then they attack.
Narrator: Brute strength, vise grip,
smashing claws, deadly venom.
lt's unstoppable.
Or is it?
Will the desert trapdoor spider
withstand an all-out assault?
lt's showdown time.
For this desert trapdoor spider,
a brief outing to find water...
...lights a chemical fuse,
burning all the way to a big bang.
Like a heat-seeking missile, the centipede locks on.
The trapdoor remains in its preferred ambush position.
lf the centipede needs to dig a prey out,
it'll use its venom claws as a pickaxe to go in on its prey.
Narrator: The centipede dives headfirst into the burrow.
Venom claws smash into the spider's body.
The centipede pulls its victim out of the burrow
so it can't escape.
The potent venom has taken its toll.
Using his claws like steak knives,
the desert centipede never eats slowly.
Dr. Fry: The centipede leaves behind this mashed pulp.
lt's very characteristic.
lf a forensic team came by and looked at this crime scene,
by this form of evidence, they would know without a doubt,
a centipede killed here.
Narrator: Soon, the sun will be out again,
and a serial killer returns to the underworld.
ln a bug war, there's always an element of surprise.
Mass attack can overwhelm superior weaponry.
Fast moves can foil brute force.
Smart thinking can overcome sophisticated armaments.
And a home advantage may be no help at all.
ln the world of monster bugs,
a quick death is the best you can hope for.