BBC Four

Life in the Undergrowth

Life in the Undergrowth: Episode 4: Intimate Relations

Episode 4

Episode 4: Intimate Relations

Intimate Relations

BBC One - Life in the Undergrowth, Intimate Relations

A look at the alliances and partnerships tiny creatures form with each other and plants.

Natural history series. David Attenborough looks at the complex alliances and partnerships tiny creatures form between each other and with plants.

Ever since they came onto land, the tiny creatures of the undergrowth have been forming alliances and partnerships with each other and with plants. 

As David Attenborough says in his opening, many of these intimate relations are of a complexity that blows the mind. And while some of these relationships clearly benefit both partners, others most certainly do not. 

Take the bot fly - a bruiser in the fly world. It uses smaller house flies as unwitting couriers to carry its eggs to cows where they hatch and bore into the cow's flesh. Or the tiny fairy wasp - 0.25mm long - that flies under water and lays its eggs inside water beetle eggs.

In the programme's final sequence we see how the caterpillar of the blue butterfly sneaks its way into an ants' nest by mimicking the smell of the ants' young. There it is protected and fed for almost two years. But a recently discovered wasp has an uncanny knack for pinpointing nests with caterpillars in. It breaks into the ants' nest using a collection of chemical tricks that any spy would love to get his hands on. One of these chemicals forces the ants to attack each other, giving the wasp time to lay its own egg into the caterpillar's body. When the wasp leaves and the nest returns to normal the ants feed the caterpillar as if nothing has happened, but when it pupates what comes out? Not a butterfly but a wasp. Mind-blowing indeed!

BBC One

David Attenborough reveals the amazing stories behind the tiny lives of invertebrates.

David Attenborough reveals the amazing stories behind the tiny lives of invertebrates, exploring their incredible miniature world with ground-breaking camerawork and technology.

4/5. The world of invertebrates, with David Attenborough.

The World; Weather

Patrick Hamilton: Words,Whisky and Women

Richard E Grant narrates a profile of the boozy, sex driven writer of Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky.

Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky

3/3. Timid Ella worships Bob from afar - but could the feeling be mutual?

BBC4 World Cinema Award Shortlist

Jonathan Ross's Asian Invasion

3/3. Director Park Chan Wook discusses his movie Oldboy as Ross visits Korea. Strong language and adult content. New.

Chiwhaseon

In 19th-century Korea, amid political and - social unrest, an uncouth painter explores his talent. Biographical drama from 2002. In Korean with English subtitles. Review p46.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The World; Weather

Patrick Hamilton: Words,Whisky and Women

Contributors

Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky

BBC4 World Cinema Award Shortlist

Jonathan Ross's Asian Invasion

Contributors

Chiwhaseon

as 10pm

as 9pm

Mark Lawson Talks to John Simpson

BBC Four

About BBC Four

Appears in

About this data

About this data