List of insect documentaries

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This list of insect documentaries includes both educational and scientific films about insects, [1] [2] [3] [4] as well as notable documentary television programs about insects. [5] It excludes fictional accounts of insects, such as those in the science fiction eco-horror subgenre. [6]

Contents

Films

The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) is a quasi-documentary film about the struggle between man and insects. [7] [8] Andrea Shaw called it a faux documentary, [9] although it won the 1971 Academy Award for the best documentary. [6]

Television and video

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee</span> Clade of insects

Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while most species (>90%) – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honey bee</span> Colonial flying insect of genus Apis

A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America, North America, and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pterygota</span> Subclass of insects

The Pterygota are a subclass of insects that includes all winged insects and the orders that are secondarily wingless.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyphaga</span> Suborder of beetles

Polyphaga is the largest and most diverse suborder of beetles. It comprises 144 families in 16 superfamilies, and displays an enormous variety of specialization and adaptation, with over 350,000 described species, or approximately 90% of the beetle species discovered thus far.

<i>Hellstroms Hive</i> 1973 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert

Hellstrom's Hive is a 1973 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It is about a secret group of humans who model their lives upon social insects and the unsettling events that unfold after they are discovered by a deep undercover agency of the U.S. government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gelastocoridae</span> Family of true bugs

The Gelastocoridae is a family of about 100 species of insects in the suborder Heteroptera. These fall into two genera, about 15 species of Gelastocoris from the New World and 85 of Nerthra from the Old World. They are reminiscent of toads both in the warty appearance and hopping movements of some species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinz Sielmann</span>

Heinz Sielmann was a German wildlife photographer, biologist, zoologist and documentary filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blattodea</span> Order of insects that includes cockroaches and termites

Blattodea is an order of insects that contains cockroaches and termites. Formerly, termites were considered a separate order, Isoptera, but genetic and molecular evidence suggests they evolved from within the cockroach lineage, cladistically making them cockroaches as well. The Blattodea and the mantis are now all considered part of the superorder Dictyoptera. Blattodea includes approximately 4,400 species of cockroach in almost 500 genera, and about 3,000 species of termite in around 300 genera.

<i>The Hellstrom Chronicle</i> 1971 film by Walon Green

The Hellstrom Chronicle is an American film released in 1971 which combines elements of documentary, horror and apocalyptic prophecy to present a gripping satirical depiction of the struggle for survival between humans and insects. It won both the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and BAFTA Award for Best Documentary. It was conceived and produced by David L. Wolper, directed by Walon Green and written by David Seltzer, who earned a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for his screenplay.

Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metasoma</span> Body part of insects

The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory system, and circulatory system, and the apical segments are typically modified to form genitalia. In a few of the most primitive insects, the metasomal segments bear small, articulated appendages called "styli", which are often considered to be vestigial. There are also pre-apical appendages in most insect orders, called cerci, which may be multi-segmented and almost resembling a posterior pair of antennae; these may be variously modified, or lost entirely. Otherwise, most adult insects lack appendages on the metasoma, though many larval insects have some form of appendages, such as prolegs or, in aquatic insects, gills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insectoids in science fiction and fantasy</span> Insect-like creatures

In science fiction and fantasy literatures, the term insectoid ("insect-like") denotes any fantastical fictional creature sharing physical or other traits with ordinary insects. Most frequently, insect-like or spider-like extraterrestrial life forms is meant; in such cases convergent evolution may presumably be responsible for the existence of such creatures. Occasionally, an earth-bound setting — such as in the film The Fly (1958), in which a scientist is accidentally transformed into a grotesque human–fly hybrid, or Kafka's famous novella The Metamorphosis (1915), which does not bother to explain how a man becomes an enormous insect — is the venue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escamol</span> Edible larvae and pupae of ants

Escamoles, known colloquially as Mexican caviar or insect caviar, are the edible larvae and pupae of ants of the species Liometopum apiculatum and L. occidentale var. luctuosum. They are most commonly consumed in Mexico City and surrounding areas. Escamoles have been consumed in Mexico since the age of the Aztecs. The taste is described as buttery and nutty, with a texture akin to that of cottage cheese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colony collapse disorder</span> Aspect of apiculture

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and have been known by various names, the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in early 2007 in conjunction with a drastic rise in reports of disappearances of western honey bee colonies in North America. Beekeepers in most European countries had observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially in Southern and Western Europe; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it affected some Asian and African countries as well. From 1990 to 2021, the United Nation’s FAO calculated that the worldwide number of honeybee colonies increased 47%, reaching 102 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insect</span> Class of arthropods

Insects are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and a pair of antennae. Insects are the most diverse group of animals, with more than a million described species; they represent more than half of all animal species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthropods in film</span>

Arthropods, which include crustaceans, arachnids, and insects, are characterized in many different ways. Their bodies are segmented and covered by a cuticle, and their appendages have joints. These and other features set arthropods apart from other groups. Arthropods, mainly insects and arachnids, are used in film either to create fear and disgust in horror and thriller movies, or they are anthropomorphized and used as sympathetic characters in animated children's movies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human interactions with insects</span>

Human interactions with insects include both a wide variety of uses, whether practical such as for food, textiles, and dyestuffs, or symbolic, as in art, music, and literature, and negative interactions including damage to crops and extensive efforts to control insect pests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insects in art</span>

Insects have found uses in art, as in other aspects of culture, both symbolically and physically, from ancient times. Artforms include the direct usage of beetlewing (elytra) in paintings, textiles, and jewellery, as well as the representation of insects in fine arts such as paintings and sculpture. Insects have sometimes formed characteristic features of artforms, as in Art Nouveau jewellery.

References

  1. 1 2 Bouse, Derek (2011). Wildlife Films. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 118–119. ISBN   978-0-8122-0584-8.
  2. Agriculture Research Service (1954). Motion Picture Films about Insects. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture. OCLC   71024544.
  3. Berenbaum, May R. & Levkosky, Richard J. (2003). "Movies, Insects in". In Resh, Vincent H. & Cardé, Ring T. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Insects. Amsterdam: Academic Press. pp. 756–762. ISBN   978-0-08-054605-6.
  4. Armstrong, Richard B.; Armstrong, Mary Willems, eds. (2010). "Insects". Encyclopedia of Film Themes, Settings and Series (reprint of second edition (2001) ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 107]. ISBN   978-1-4766-1230-0.
  5. Acorn, John H. & Sperling, Felix A. H. (2003). "Teaching Resources: Television and Video". In Resh, Vincent H. & Cardé, Ring T. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Insects. Amsterdam: Academic Press. pp. 989–990. ISBN   978-0-08-054605-6.
  6. 1 2 Murphy, Bernice M. (2013). "Chapter 5. 'Why Wouldn't the Wilderness Fight Us?' American Eco-Horro and the Apocalypse". The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture: Backwoods Horror and Terror in the Wilderness. Basingstoke, Hampshire, England: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 217–218. ISBN   978-1-137-35373-3.
  7. Tompkins, Dave (27 February 2012). "Swarming the Field: Bugs, Nazis, and The Hellstrom Chronicle". Grantland. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  8. Chapman, James & Cull, Nicholas J. (2013). Projecting Tomorrow: Science Fiction and Popular Cinema. London: I.B.Tauris. pp. 141–143. ISBN   978-1-78076-410-8.
  9. Shaw, Andrea (1996). "The Hellstrom Chronicle". Seen That, Now What?: The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Video You Really Want to Watch. New York: Simon and Schuster. p.  271. ISBN   978-0-684-80011-0.
  10. Kaye, Evelyn (1979). The ACT Guide to Children's Television: Or how to Treat TV with T.L.C. (second ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. p.  70. ISBN   978-0-8070-2366-2.
  11. "Weevils". PBS.
  12. "Butterfly Wings". PBS.
  13. Shardlow, Matt (2013). "The institutionalization of insect welfare: the cultural aspects of establishing a new organization dedicated to concerving invertebrates". In Lemein, Raynald Harvey (ed.). The Management of Insects in Recreation and Tourism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p.  285. ISBN   978-1-107-01288-2.