Plot Synopsis

Written and presented by David Attenborough, MICRO MONSTERS is a one-hour series that chronicles everything about bugs, the most dominant animals on Earth that outnumber people and have outlived every catastrophe thrown at them for 500 million years. They are so intrinsic to the natural world that without them people would struggle to exist. In part one, "Conflict," Attenborough investigates the violence, rivalries and deadly weaponry existing within the world of bugs. The second installment, "Courtship," unravels the unusual mating rituals of creatures, including that of the male Chilean rose tarantula. While most of the series focuses on conflict, the final episode, "Family," is all about bugs that prefer cooperation in lieu of broken societies. Among the featured creatures are the suitably named social spiders that spin a single enormous, nearly 100-foot web for the whole colony, a queen bee that rules her hive with a strict hierarchy, burrowing cockroaches, and some green ants showing team spirit to help build a nest together. As part of its seven-week long "Wild with Sir David Attenborough" programming event, Smithsonian Channel aired the U.S. premiere of this series on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at 8pm ET/PT.