Original air date: 23 November 2005
Below is a more detailed look at the outline the contents of this programme
Selected sequences
Attenborough showing their minute scale
Attenborough shows the tiny scale which the technique “macrophotography” is working with. The animals they are filming are sometimes the size of a full stop, literally a pin-head (10′-10’02).
A centipede hunting a bat
A centipede holding on to the cave wall on its hind legs while reaching into the flight path of the bats (top, 21’42) and almost instantly it catches one (bottom).
Mating on land
Mating in water was no problem especially for hermaphrodites (each individual containing both eggs and sperm): just release them and the environment will do the rest. On dry land that is different. Individuals have to meet to exchange these like the leopard slugs below.
A slug releases a chemical telling the rest that it is ready to mate. Another one picks up the signal and makes contact “giving a nibble” and they start intertwining (top images) and let go of the branch (centre, left). Both release eggs and sperm (right image) and fertilisation takes place, bottom (24’05-25’25).