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Peek Inside the Strange, Secret World of Bugs | Short Film Showcase


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Once upon a time, all of Britain was covered in wild wood, a hunting ground for kings, an ancient home for many beasts. Few places remain where this landscape can now be found. In the New Forest, that world still exists.

It is an old world full of life, where common creatures live side by side with the last of the medieval monsters. The New Forest contains many unique habitats. Here, there are trees over 600 years old. For some, their time is up, but death brings new life. Beneath this fallen giant, the earth is stirring. A male stag beetle, he has spent the last six years as an underground grub, feeding on the dead wood. Now his quest begins to find a mate before the end of his short adult life.

Whilst beetles use the trees for food, another creature uses them to build. Amongst the conifers, there is a kingdom of millions. Southern wood ants, this fortress may host a hundred queens, all busy producing the next generation of workers. They might seem like an easy lunch for larger predators, but the battlements are well defended. When threatened, the ants fire jets of formic acid, enough to make a robin think twice.

Drama over, the ants return to business with an army to feed. The workers are always on the lookout for dinner; nothing is off the menu. The oldest ants roamed farthest; they know this terrain inside out. But this worker may have overestimated her abilities. It's a dung beetle! This Goliath is far too powerful for a single ant. It escapes onto the heath, where the woodland has been kept at bay for centuries. Equine teeth have shaped this world, but the ponies create something much more attractive, at least for a dung beetle.

His path is filled with many obstacles, but at the end of a hard road, the beetle finds a feast. We're gorse replaces grassland; another monster stalks the heath. The tiger beetle, with excellent eyesight and massive jaws, will pounce on anything that moves. Fierce though he is, nearby there is a place where even monsters fear to tread. Dry heath merges into saturated bog.

These sundews have a deadly secret; their sweet nectar is a lure and a sticky trap. The victim is slowly digested. The soil here is low in nutrients, and sundews need these supplements to survive. This butterfly is too big for a sundew; for him, the bog is just a feeding ground. But the reeds are also battlefields, and every stagnant pond is a dragon's lair. A keeled skimmer, ready to duel, clashes are fast-paced and frequent. With the challenger repelled, he can mate without competition. There is no courtship among dragons; the male seizes any female in his domain.

Mating is brief. Now the female lays her eggs. She flicks them underwater whilst the male guards her from above. The more eggs she lays, the more chance some will survive. This dragon will be dead by winter. During his brief reign, he will mate as often as possible so that in the years to come, it will be his descendants who rule the air.

Back in the woodland, the stag's quest is at an end. He has found a female; so has another. To win her, they must jest. The stag has proved his worth; now it is time to claim his mate. This is the stag's last act; his genes will be passed on, and in a few days, he will die.

With mating over, the stag does not release his grip, but the female has good reason to break free. She must find a safe spot to lay her eggs and ensure the future of her offspring. The New Forest has been unchanged for a thousand years. Ancient life still clings to an old world. This patchwork of habitats provides a stronghold for creatures of a bygone age: the dragons, the Goliaths, the soldiers of a great army; the last of the medieval monsters.

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