that crawl around us are miniscule.
But some species have evolved to be huge.
Mighty millipedes, creepy cockroaches
and giant prickly stick insects.
These colossal critters are everywhere
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Myriopodophobia.
It's a real thing.
A recent term coined to describe a fear of these...
millipedes.
Multi-legged and definitely creepy.
A monster-sized millipede like this,
well, it's enough to make anyone want to close their eyes.
But that won't help.
Neither will turning off the lights.
The giant African millipede,
the biggest millipede on the planet,
prefers the dark.
This creature is a night crawler,
a nocturnal hunter,
that feeds on the dead and the rotting.
The more it eats, the bigger it gets.
The giant African millipede molts like a snake
and can grow over a foot long.
As it grows, it keeps adding more legs.
Two pairs on every segment, except its head.
Adults are generally 40 segments long.
That's 160 legs.
And if a predator grabs a millipede's leg,
the millipede can drop it and keep on moving.
It just regrows it later.
With all those legs,
it appears to always be on the move.
But the millipede is slow and methodical.
Slow and steady wins the evolutionary race.
The millipede is the oldest known land creature,
dating back at least 420 million years.
If this one gives you the willies,
be grateful you weren't around in prehistoric times.
Its enormous ancestor,
the arthropleura,
was 8-1/2 feet long.
This monster would have outsized humans
and was large enough to eat almost anything.
But, like modern millipedes, it was a plant lover.
In fact, millipedes like this are peace-loving,
conflict-avoiding vegans.
Nature's hippies.
Yes, they do eat dead and rotting things
but it's dead and rotting plant material.
They use their antennae to sense
whether rotting plant matter is just rotten enough.
Giant African millipedes are crawling composters.
They recycle the rainforest.
They chew up decaying plants and leave nutrients behind,
creating new soil with their droppings.
They need some calcium in their diet
to maintain the exoskeleton that protects them.
So, sometimes they chew on rocks.
Another thing that helps maintain that shiny armor
is an army of little mites
that crawl all over their bodies.
The mites eat debris and dead cells
on each of the millipedes' body segments.
That way the millipedes stay clean.
It's a win-win.
But their hard exteriors need more than just a cleaning.
Millipedes breathe through pores on their segments
and need to stay moist to do so.
Unlike insects, their bodies lack a waxy coating
that prevents moisture loss.
That's why they thrive in environments
like damp rainforests.
It's also why they come out at night,
so they don't dry up in the heat of the day.
Giant African millipedes aren't the fastest critters
in the jungle.
So instead of attempting to outrun predators,
they curl into a ball, exposing their hard exoskeleton
and leaving their soft underbelly protected.
If that doesn't work, they resort to chemical warfare,
oozing out hydrogen cyanide from their rear ends.
It's poison,
and it's pungent enough to deter most predators.
But some animals have learned
to use this poison to their advantage.
This species of Madagascan lemur pinches and bites millipedes
to make them exude the toxic substance.
Then, they rub the millipedes on heir bodies like
a wet loofah.
It's an instant pesticide.
It keeps parasites at bay but it also has an added bonus.
The toxic substance appears to act like a drug,
making the lemurs salivate and behave in strange ways.
So while seeing giant African millipedes
might strike fear into the hearts of some of us,
they're clearly a delight for others.
The saying goes, "You are what you eat."
And this insect truly takes that to heart.
Sitting on a tree, swaying in the wind,
munching on leaves.
Giant prickly stick insects spend their day
lounging in the rain forests in Australia and New Guinea.
These insects don't bite or sting.
They're not fast or even particularly good at jumping.
But they have a special gift,
invisibility.
They're able to practically disappear.
Here, a whole family of giant prickly stick insects
is hiding among the trees.
The true giant of this family is the female.
She can be up to 8 inches long.
Her wings, tiny by comparison, are unusable.
Oh yes, she's prickly to the touch too,
covered in defensive spines.
If she needs to put up a fight, she can curl her tail
and make herself look like a scorpion.
She doesn't have a stinger
but she does have a wicked perfume.
When threatened,
a female can shoot out a distinctive scent.
Predators find it repulsive
but to humans, it smells like peanut butter or toffee.
This tiny stick insect nymph will likely grow up
to be just like her mother.
Identical, in fact.
If there are no males around to mate with,
the adult female can create clones of herself,
laying eggs that hatch 9 months later,
into more females just like mom.
The male giant prickly stick insect
isn't quite so giant.
He weighs about half as much as his mate.
He's not only smaller and thinner than a female
but he also lacks her tiny protective spines.
But what he does have are wings that can carry him.
Males are excellent fliers.
Rounding of the family is this baby stick insect.
It's only a few days old
and already it's gone through some big changes.
When it was fresh out of the egg,
it was well camouflaged.
Though, not masquerading as a stick,
but as an ant.
Ants are notoriously unpalatable to other insects.
So a newly hatched giant prickly insect
can take refuge in its disguise.
Eventually, it'll grow a face like this,
a face that that only a giant prickly stick insect mother
could love.
It may not be charming to us
but it is perfectly suited to its herbivore lifestyle.
These insects use the finger-like appendages
on their faces
to hold and tear small pieces of foliage,
preferably eucalyptus leaves.
That's where these strange giants
prefer to spend their time.
Hidden among the leaves,
swaying without a care in the world.
In the tropical forests of Thailand and Myanmar
lives an aggressive and stealthy fighter.
The peacock mantis is truly the ninja master
of the insect world.
Now you see it.
Now you don't.
The drab color of the peacock mantis's body
lets it disappear into its surroundings.
It's so easy to confuse it for a part of a tree.
This disappearing act helps it stalk its prey.
And while it might be tough for us to spot,
this mantis can spot others with ease.
It can keep an eye out for something to hunt
or for something on the hunt.
Mantises' are among the few insects
that can turn their heads 180 degrees,
thanks to a flexible joint between their head and thorax.
Their two large compound eyes give them a wide field of vision
and acuity that is better than most insects,
another asset when hunting.
But strangely enough, they only have one ear,
found on the underside of their belly,
just in front of their hind legs.
Not exactly where you'd expect.
They're the only known animal with this unusual trait.
And it has its limitations.
The offset of sound waves across two ears
helps determine a sound's source
but with only one ear,
mantises can't tell where a sound is coming from.
What the mantises can do is detect ultrasonic waves.
So when predators like bats emit sound waves
to find their insect prey,
mantises can get out of the way, fast.
If a peacock mantis thinks it's been spotted,
it adds a bit of flair to its getup.
This is where the peacock in its name comes in.
These eyespots on their wings are meant to trick predators
into thinking they're dealing with a much bigger animal.
And if the hunter tries to attack anyway,
the eyespots draw attention away
from the mantis's most important part,
its head.
It presents its wings instead, as sacrificial bait.
But the mantis knows that the best defense
is a great offense.
When it needs to look tough, this insect puts on a show,
hissing and shaking like it's possessed.
The mantis is a bold carnivore that has its pick of prey,
beetles and butterflies are its bread and butter.
But this enormous insect can even hunt frogs, baby mice
or even small birds.
Being able to restrain large prey in its strong arms
is a huge advantage.
The mantises speed also helps it land a meal.
Cutthroat and covert,
traits that give the peacock mantis mastery
over its domain.
Want to meet the world's oldest socialite?
Well, skip the bridge club.
Forget the bingo hall.
And peek into a dark cave
or a hollow tree
and you might find what you're looking for.
This is Blaberus giganteus,
the giant cave cockroach.
A champion socialite,
200 million years in the making.
At 3 inches long and 1 inch wide,
this is one of the largest cockroaches in the world.
It lives in colonies of about 200.
Those facts might set some human hearts racing.
Cockroaches of all shapes and sizes
have long been reviled household pests.
But this branch of the family
isn't really interested in our homes.
Their overflowing colonies can be found
in the tropical forests of Central and South America.
Like all cockroaches,
giant cave cockroaches are survivors.
They can live for up to 2 years,
an unusually long time for an insect.
A huge part of their resilience
is due to their incredible immunity.
This trait is rare among invertebrates.
They can generate antibodies to fight off fungal infections.
And if the infection comes back,
these antibodies mutate to fight it off again and again.
Given their two-year lifespan,
facing the same fungal infections more than once
is a strong possibility.
This immunity gives them a leg up.
And with their unappetizing diet,
they might need all the help they can get.
On the menu, dead animals, rotten fruit,
bird and bat droppings.
Scavenging.
Eating just about anything dead
is part of what keeps this species going.
But survival is also about a good defense.
If threatened, these cockroaches can produce their own foul smell
to turn away would-be predators.
But many predators won't dare get that close.
That's because this cockroach's colors
mimic those of noxious beetles.
They can also sense if a predator is closing in.
Two horn-like appendages on their underside
detect minute vibrations in the air,
caused by an incoming attack.
This gives them a head start on getting out of harm's way
by burrowing, or squeezing into tiny places.
Their flat bodies are perfect for this kind of evasion.
Their survival skills are essential.
These cockroaches are one the slowest
breeding species in the world.
They will generally breed only 2 to 4 times
during their two-year lifetime.
And, rather than expending unnecessary energy,
they'll abort eggs
if the conditions for success aren't right.
A female can lay up to 35 eggs at one time.
These little dark ones with flat,
horseshoe-crab-like bodies are juveniles, called "nymphs".
They'll molt several times until they turn into adults,
about 4 months after hatching.
Then they'll mate
and produce their own offspring while mom's still breeding.
So litters tend to overlap.
And overflow.
But that's okay.
Because with the giant cave cockroach,
the party just keeps on going.
In nature, and mythology,
the stag is a symbol of strength.
The imposing antlers of the male deer
are an enduring image.
And this insect stag is just as impressive.
With its magnificently long, imposing appendages,
the stag beetle not only has the look
it also has the brawn of its namesake.
Stag beetles are found the world over.
1,200 species of them roam the earth.
There are more beetles than any other type of animal.
They account for almost 25% of all known animal forms.
So as beetles go,
you have to have some incredible features
to stand out from the crowd.
Stag beetles have size on their side.
Not their bodies, not their heads.
But their jaws.
Particularly the males.
Male stag beetles' jaws
can be half their overall body length.
But luckily for the rest of the insect world,
their fearsome look is only shell deep.
Stag beetles aren't hunters.
If they're forced to defend themselves,
their jaws do serve to intimidate.
But they're really just for display purposes.
An attacker would get nothing worse
than a little pinch.
But to other male stag beetles,
these jaws represent one thing,
a fight.
Competition between males is fierce.
When a male finds a suitable dead tree or stump,
one that will be a good spot for females to lay eggs,
it stakes its claim.
And if another male stag beetle shows up?
Well, it's time for a good, old-fashioned throwdown.
The males will use their jaws
to forcefully grapple with one another,
until one is thrown from the stump.
The impressive length of the males' jaws
should actually make it difficult
for the beetles to clamp down.
The longer the jaw,
the less force a stag beetle should be able to use.
But male stag beetles have extremely powerful mandibles.
How is this possible?
To compensate for the length of their jaws,
their heads are packed full of muscle.
Their muscles and heads are four times bigger than a female's.
Getting flipped over means trouble.
They're so top heavy and their backs are so flat,
it's incredibly hard for them to right themselves.
So losing a fight
could leave them extra vulnerable to predators.
The losers must also move on
and hope for better luck in their next fight.
Meanwhile, to the winner go the spoils.
They get to mate with any females
that come their way.
Impregnated females will lay their eggs
inside the tree stump.
The larvae hatch quickly.
Then they feed on the fungi and microbes
in wet decaying wood.
Incredibly, the grubs stay there for several years.
When they eventually emerge as stag beetles,
they live out the final
and most critical three to five weeks of their life.
It's not a lot of time to find a mate.
It's a small window of opportunity
to pass on their genes to the next generation.
These giant creepy crawlers have a leg up in the world.
From clever camouflage,
to eating anything and everything.
These insects and arthropods
are so well adapted to their environments,
they'll likely be on the planet long after we're gone.
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