Mini Beasts (See How They Grow)

Mini Beasts (called Insects and Spiders in the USA release) is one of the ten direct-to-video programmes produced by Dorling Kindersley Vision as part of the See How They Grow series. It was one of the earlier five programmes, released on VHS on 31st May 1993. This programme looks at the life-cycles of four invertebrates.

## Sections

Click here for the full transcript of Mini Beasts.

### Ladybird

(called Ladybug in the USA release)

The programme opens with an adult two-spot ladybird cleaning herself before leaving her golden eggs stuck to a leaf close to aphids, which are their main food. After four days, the eggs hatch into pinhead-sized black larvae that look nothing like their mother. The larvae start looking for aphids to eat. Over the next eighteen days, the larvae shed their skins three times and get bigger and more colourful each time. After eating enough aphids to pupate, the larva sticks itself to a leaf and becomes a pupa. Inside, its body changes and after two weeks it hatches into a ladybird. After drying off, it sets off to find something to eat.

### Butterfly

The second part opens with several butterflies feeding from flowers. A peacock butterfly lays a clutch of green eggs on the leaf of a stinging nettle. After a while, the eggs change colour and begin to hatch into tiny caterpillars. After leaving their eggs, the caterpillars set about eating the nettles. As they grow their skin begins to tighten and one caterpillar is shown shedding its skin. As they grow, they continue to eat and soon destroy the nettle patch. Finally, the caterpillar moults into a chrysalis and inside it changes to a butterfly. After hatching, the butterfly expands its wings before flying off to find its first meal among the flowers.

### Spider

The third part begins with a female nursery-web spider carrying her egg-sac. She starts to weave blades of grass together in order to make a nursery tent for her eggs. After completing this, she attaches the egg-sac to the inside of the tent before standing guard. The eggs then begin to hatch, with the spiderlings clustered inside the nursery tent. When born, they lack eyes, claws or spinnerets and only get these after their first moult. After leaving the web, the spider is then shown as an adult. A garden spider is then shown spinning a web and catching a fly, but the nursery-web spider’s creation is nowhere near as impressive.

### Locust

(called Grasshopper in the USA release)

The final part of the programme begins by introducing a bright yellow male locust. A less colourful female is then shown laying her eggs in the sand. After about three weeks, the eggs hatch and the young locusts crawl to the surface, shedding their skin when they emerge. After a few days, their bodies have darkened and wing buds are growing although they cannot fly and only jump at this age. To help grow to adulthood, the young locusts must eat a lot and a group of them are shown feeding on grass. Finally, the locust reaches its final moult and sheds its skin to become a bright yellow adult male. He then flies away.

## Species list, in order of appearance

### Filmed in studio:

The section each species appears in are bracketed:

* Two-spot ladybird, *Adalia bipunctata* (Ladybird, Spider)
* Greenfly, *Myzus persicae* (Ladybird)
* Small white butterfly, *Pieris rapae* (Butterfly)
* Meadow brown butterfly, *Maniola jurtina* (Butterfly)
* Small tortoiseshell butterfly, *Aglais urticae* (Butterfly)
* European peacock butterfly, *Aglais io* (Butterfly)
* Nursery-web spider, *Pisaura mirabilis* (Spider)
* Garden orb-weaving spider, *Araneus diadematus* (Spider)
* Bluebottle, *Calliphora vomitoria* (Spider)
* Desert locust, *Schistocerca gregaria* (Locust)

## Credits

* Special thanks to:
	+ Dr Michael Majerus
	+ Dick Jones
* Narrator - Johnny Morris
* Script - Sally-Anne Gordon
* Research - Clara Jollands
* Animal Handlers - John Vincent, Lionel Bailey and Christopher Rabone
* Camera Operators - Eddie McCaffrey and Tom Gordon
* Lighting - Roddy Gibson
* Set Construction - John Vincent
* Music - Luis Gordon
* On-Line Editors - Bill Ogden and John Pearce
* VT Assistant - Peter Williams
* Title Graphics - Leigh Wimporey
* Animation Sequences - Ealing Animation
	+ Animator - Jody Gannon
	+ Colourer - Vivien Redmond
* Dubbing Mixer - Steve Rogers
* Production Assistants - Adam Gordon, Tim Coxon and Paul Hitchman
* Producer and Director - Tom Gordon

## Appearances in other DK Vision media

A clip of the adult locust sitting on a rock and then leaping vertically off the screen was used in the episode Mini-Beasts of Amazing Animals Series One.

The metamorphosing butterfly sequence was used as a video clip in the Eyewitness Encyclopedia of Nature 1.0 (unrelated to the Eyewitness television series).

## Home media releases

The UK VHS release of Mini Beasts shows a seven-spot ladybird at the bottom of the cover. To the left of the title is a house spider, with a desert locust on the top-left and a peacock butterfly on the top-right of the cover. The artworks at the top and bottom of the cover both depict swallowtail butterflies, with one shown flying and the other feeding from a flower.

An original version of the UK cover has hand-drawn cartoons of ladybirds, spiders and butterflies in the middle of the cover, which is bordered by a purple border decorated with leaves. A ladybird is shown in the 'See How They Grow' logo, while the 'M' of Mini Beasts is drawn as a caterpillar.

The Sony Wonder VHS release shows a swallowtail butterfly on the top of the cover, with a wolf spider in the bottom-left and a stripe-winged grasshopper in the bottom-right of the cover. Above the 'See How They Grow' logo is a series of hand-drawn artworks showing the caterpillar growing up into an adult butterfly.

Mini Beasts has also been released in multi-episode formats. In the USA Insects and Spiders was part of a Volume One release that also combined Farm Animals, Pets and Pond Animals.

## Further information

Butterfly was originally a book title published in 1992.