Insects & Invertebrates
"It's like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel.” The wasps and bees with the most painful, savage stings on the planet
Not all stings are created equal – explore the bees and wasps whose powerful venoms produce some of the most intense pain ever recorded
“It seizes the victim with large spines, impaling and immobilising the prey…” This ultimate hunter might look like a spider, but don’t be fooled…
In this clip from BBC Earth’s Expedition Guyana, George McGavin explores an extreme habitat underneath a fallen, hollowed-out tree in a Guyana rainforest, and comes across something interesting…
"They eat their hosts from the inside out, using saw-like teeth to chew their way through thick skin." 10 most brutal, savage, parasites on the planet
Lurking in the shadows of many ecosystems are animals whose main motivations are, quite literally, to hijack the bodies of others and eat them from the inside out…
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"Multiple stings can cause alarming swelling, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and confusion. An average human would be lucky to survive 1,000 stings"
What makes a slight skin prick, administered by a bee or a wasp, turn into a life-threatening emergency?
If you disturb this critter prepare to be stink-bombed by nasty excretions; a fiendish spray that burns and blinds its prey. It's bite is pretty painful too
Keep an eye out for the beetle with the triple-threat defence.
Why does a bee die after it stings you? And is that the case for all bees?
Just what happens to a bee after it stings you? Why do some species die and some survive?
What do a beetle and an iconic anime character have in common? A lot, apparently
Beetles constitute almost 25% of all known animal species – scientists just discovered two more.
"They found a large, nose-shaped structure, bigger than a Cadillac, inside a house..."
The world’s biggest wasp nest is longer than a Cadillac and shaped like a nose
At 7cm long it's not only the biggest wasp in the world but the deadliest thanks to its 6mm stinger – just how deadly is it?
This giant wasp would not be a welcome guest at your picnic, says Kitty Aldis
Scientists entered a cave on a mysterious Caribbean island, strewn with strange fossils. What they found there was like nothing else on Earth
Bees are known for being incredibly smart – this recent discovery confirms that their ancient counterparts were just as resourceful.
It spans 7m and contains 50,000 scurrying creatures that all work together to take down prey
Living, hunting and raising young together, this social spider forms one of the largest cooperative groups of any arachnid in the world.
“They don’t have the strength – so they’ve turned into a mass killing machine”
In a clip from the BBC’s Evolution, Chris Packham explains how ants have evolved to become efficient hunters
Bee vs fly: what's the difference between these two buzzing insects?
We think we know the difference, but sometimes one of these insects mimics the behaviours of the other – which can make things very confusing...
"The result is a medieval-looking bit of engineering designed to lodge and entangle the limbs, palps and mouthparts of any attacker"
Loaded with a weaponised derrière, this baby beetle dares to go where few insects would: right into a spider’s web.
"Working together they can subdue prey 700 times their weight - even birds aren't safe..." Inside this terrifying web of nightmares
If one spider is enough to get you sweating, how about webs full of thousands of them?
"It can handle the ionising radiation of space, exist in suspended animation for 30 years & will be the last beast standing in a nuclear holocaust"
Tardigrades are one of the toughest and most intriguing creatures on Earth. Nick Baker takes a look at these microscopic bear-like creatures, also known as water bears
"To survive the winter it builds itself a life-support bubble. We can assume that the structure is more or less sealed..."
Nick Baker takes an in-depth look at the marsh fritillary's winter survival skills
"Dice it any which way and each fragment will in time become a fully functional creature. How, though, is not fully understood..."
Discover one of the bizarrest creatures in the world
The vampire spider that drinks human blood and has a liking for smelly socks
Too small to bite a human, this arachnid manages to get a taste of the red stuff elsewhere. Nick Baker introduces us to the vampire spider
This tropical creature lives almost 3 times longer than expected and appears to barely age. Here’s why scientists are so excited
Insects don’t tend to live very long lives, but one tropical butterfly has found a way to stay young.
"They hide close to where you sleep and feed when the opportunity arises. Once it reaches skin, it uses piercing, sucking mouthparts to draw blood"
All you ever needed to know about the infamous bed bug
"If a person inadvertently touches this larva's bristles, they can suffer massive internal haemorrhaging, renal failure, haemolysis – and even death"
The world's most house-damaging pest has reached Britain before – could it happen again?
Despite their diminutive size, these ant lookalikes are capable of destroying a house, but just how common are termites in the UK?
What's the loudest spider on Earth? This record-breaking arachnid is so noisy it can be heard by humans
Think spiders are silent? Think again. One species is so loud it can be heard by humans several metres away.
