'Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, war,' pontificated American writer Mark Twain in his essay What is Man? Perhaps the Twainster should have reserved judgment until he had had the chance to research the subject more thoroughly, however.
It would seem that mankind, despite our obvious flair for it, does not have a monopoly on war, as demonstrated by not one, but two startling nature documentaries showing this week.
Proving that creepy-crawlies are even more unpleasant than they look is Insect Wars (National Geographic, Monday at 9pm). This fascinating documentary reveals the epic battles fought, sieges endured and conquests celebrated by armies that march on six legs apiece. Using tiny cameras
and slow-motion techniques, Insect Wars gets a soldier's-eye view of the crusades fought out of human sight amid the undergrowth.
Matabele ants, for example, have marauding forces that make the Vikings and the Mongols look like rank amateurs. Protected by tough body armour and armed with a poisonous sting and powerful jaws, these diminutive commandos are every termite's worst nightmare. As this show demonstrates in microscopic detail, when the ants locate a termite mound, they storm it with an army of up to 600 soldiers and massacre the inhabitants with brutal ease. The bloodthirsty blighters only stop killing when they have as much food as they can carry back to their nest - which can be as many as 4,000 slain termites.
Also featured in this excellent documentary are: army ants, which can build bridges, perform incredible feats of strength and overwhelm much larger creatures with sweeping attacks; 'gestapo' bees, which ensure no bee but the queen can successfully lay eggs; and the incredible polyergus ants, which raid the colonies of the smaller formica ants to steal their larvae so they can 'enslave' them.
Most visually stunning of all, however, are the astounding battles between giant hornets and honey bees. Insect Wars reveals how an attack squad of just 30 hornets, captured in spectacular footage, can wipe out a hive of 30,000 bees in under an hour. (Incidentally, can insect genocide be called insecticide?) The bees fight valiantly against their intruders - which are five times their size - and, to a bee, they go down fighting to protect their hive. Bleak, but for the bees, I guess it's a case of 'they can take our honey, but they'll never take our bee-dom!'