Insects (1979)

[Music] Sometimes we think we are all alone. We look around and see nothing but trees and flowers. Let's look closely and listen. [Music] No, we are not alone. In fact, there are more kinds of insects than any other creatures in the world. And they live everywhere we do. And in many places, we don't. Their numbers are so large that we can hardly imagine how many there are. What looks like a small cloud of dancing snowflakes is really thousands of insects. Why are there so many insects? The main reason is that so many are born. The offspring from a single pair of insects could blanket the whole world in a single summer. Could, but don't. There's not enough food and there are too many enemies. Some of an insect's enemies are other insects. Then there are fish, reptiles, and birds. Even man with his fly swatters and chemicals. Insects are born by the millions so that their kind will survive. And there are hundreds of thousands of different kinds. Some are so small a leaf looks large by comparison. Others are big enough to cover a watch. Your own backyard is probably home to hundreds of kinds of insects. Insects come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. But they are all insects. They all have things in common with this fly. a head with the insect's brain, eyes, and mouth parts. The thorax, this is where the insect's wings, and legs connect. The abdomen houses the body cavity. Inside are the insect's heart, stomach, and intestines. Insects have either two or four wings. This fly has two. Insects also have six legs. The antenna are attached to the insect's head. They help it sense its world. Now, you can tell an insect from any other animal you might meet. An insect's eyes are very different from our own. Each eye is made up of thousands of tiny lenses. We call this a compound eye. Each lens sends a picture to the brain. What the insect sees are all these pictures put together. [Music] Some insects find out about their world in strange ways. Some hear through their legs. Others taste through their feet. Often insects are very hard to see. Many are able to blend in with the twigs, stems, even the flowers they live on. This helps them hide from enemies. Insects are good animals to study. You can find them almost everywhere. Look in trees, bushes, flowers, and on the ground. Often you can find them near water. Be careful not to hurt the insect when you catch it. Bring back some of the water or leaves the insect was in. Then it will have something to eat. Here a moth emerges. Moths and their close relatives butterflies are some of the most beautiful insects. And like most insects, they can fly. In fact, insects were the first animals to master [Music] flight. One of the best ways to study an insect is to film it. One of the most interesting and beautiful insects is the monarch butterfly. The photographer is going to record the life cycle of the monarch. A life cycle is a series of stages. Each insect passes through these stages in becoming an adult. The life cycle begins when the female lays a tiny white egg. The process called complete metamorphosis has begun. The egg is about the same size as the eye of a needle. 5 days later, the larvae or caterpillar emerges. This is the second stage. The larvae is hungry. For several weeks, it will eat almost constantly. It grows quickly. When it is mature, the larvae will be many times larger than it was at [Music] birth. Then the larvae slows down. Soon it stops eating. The larvae attaches a small button of silk to a branch. Speeded up, the larvae changes into a pupa or chrysalis. This is the third [Music] stage. Inside the pupa is changing into an adult butterfly. You can see through the chrysalis just before the adult butterfly emerges. [Music] The adult marks the final stage of the life cycle. The miracle of metamorphosis is complete. The photographer has an idea. He collects larve about to pupate and hangs them from a small tree. [Music] For more than a week, he watches the tree. Finally, the monarchs begin emerging. The site is rare and beautiful. [Music] [Music] One of the best known insects is the honeybee. Many bees live together in a hive. They come and go all day long. Activity in the hive centers on the queen bee. The queen is the largest bee in the hive. Worker bees groom and feed her. The queen's only job is to lay eggs. She lays eggs for the entire hive. The metamorphosis of the bee takes 21 days. On the average, the workers feed each larvae almost once a minute all day long. In 12 days, the pupa looks pretty much like in a dump. Then the young bee emerges. It chews through the bee's wax covering of its cell. The new adult bees begin work at once. Worker bees form chains to repair honeycomb. Each bee works for the good of the hive. A worker bee lives only about 5 or 6 weeks. The queen bee may live 2 to 3 years. When she dies, the workers must produce a new queen. Special cells are built around a few eggs and larve. The workers put royal jelly in the cells. Now the special larve change into queens. A hive can only have one queen. The first queen born hunts for other royal cells. If two queens are born at the same time, they fight. Only one can [Music] live. Except in winter, bees search for [Music] flowers. Here they sip nectar to turn into honey. And they gather pollen, the golden dust used to raise more bees. As the bee flies from flower to flower, it leaves some pollen behind. The pollen from the different flowers gets mixed up. This helps the flowers bloom, produce seed, and grow another year. Insects are easy to overlook. But they were here on Earth long before we were and they are no less important. [Music]