Bugs That Rule the World

In Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve on the plains of South Africa, an army of dung beetles does one of the dirtiest jobs in the animal kingdom. Dr. Gimo Daniel studies these beetles, who voraciously recycle the dung of the much larger animals on the plains. It might seem like a bizarre and thankless undertaking, but dung beetles are crucial to the health and waste management of this environment.

In Northern Thailand, the longstanding tradition of beetle fights is a fascinating spectacle. Ummat Somjee befriends local beetle fighters to understand how locals have raised these beetles to fight for sport. In order to raise strong beetles, and get them to fight, the Thai locals pay close attention to the Rhinoceros Beetle’s behavior, diet, and natural habitat.

Mantis expert Gavin Svenson heads to the Brazilian amazon to sample the diversity of mantises in the forest. It is important for Svenson to understand the and quantify the number of mantises in the amazon, he describes the problems with declines in that we cannot know what we are losing if we don’t know what we even have. Svenson wants to find a mantis he described and named after his daughter.

In one of the most singular migratory events in the animal world, monarch butterflies spend their winters in the fir forests of Michoacan, Mexico. It takes multiple generations to make this trip, and when the monarchs arrive they completely cover the fir trees of the high altitude forests. Conservationist Homero Gonzalez describes the meaning of these monarchs to the local culture.

In Sumacó, Ecuador, Entomologists Jesse Barber and Akito Kawahara study the centuries-long evolutionary arms race between moths and bats. Moths have had to develop a wide range of bizarre and clever defenses to combat the threat of bats, from emitting toxic smells to jamming bats’ echolocation sonar with their thorax, Kawahara and Barber describe this fascinating battle in the night sky.

Urban Ecologist Sylvana Ross visits Baltimore, Maryland to find Tapinoma Sessile, the odorous house ant. Ross’ research is focused on ants and how they respond to different environments within a city. By comparing ants in historically red-lined neighborhoods and those in more open, green spaces, Ross is able to measure how ants respond to human-altered habitats.

In the rainforest of Panamá, evolutionary biologist Ummat Somjee researches the enigmatic behavior of a family of flag-footed bugs. By creating a quasi-natural lab he calls ‘The Bug Hut’ Somjee is able to observe the flag-footed bugs intimately. Somjee discovers how these insects use their unique appendages to scare predators away.

A four-part global investigation into insect declines, exploring their diversity and their critical roles on the planet. Scientists reveal the beauty of bugs, from pollinators to insect assassins to the tiny clean-up crews that purify the planet.