Secrets of Success
A Teleplay for a One-Hour TV Documentary
Synopsis & Outline
The unsurpassed success of insects — the most numerous and diverse group of animals on the planet — is seen as the result of their wondrous defenses, adaptations, communication, and societies, all of which impact — and are impacted by — the lives of human beings, the single most successful species on Earth. This is, thus, “the age of instinct and intelligence”!
-
Introduction: The Age of Insect & Human Beings
- Introduction
- The Success of Insects vs. The Success of People
- Diversity
- Numbers
- Reproduction rates
- Antiquity, or conversely ...
- Distribution
- Physical fitness
- Technology
- Social organizations
- Rights and responsibilities
- Learning About Ourselves by Learning About Insects
-
Insect Defenses: Surviving in the Environment
- Introduction
-
Structural Defenses
- Small size
- Large size and armor
- Shelters
- Camouflage
- Markings
- Mimicry
-
Behavioral Defenses
- Fight
- chemical
- physical
- Fright: Playing possum
- Flight
- Fight
-
Insect Adaptations: Prospering in the Environment
- Structural Adaptations
- Wings
- Other locomotion
- Mouthparts
- Summary
- Example: Honey bee
- pollen- and nectar-gathering adaptations
- compound eyes / honey comb
- Functional/Behavioral Adaptations
- Floral co-evolution
- Complete metamorphosis
- Structural Adaptations
-
Insect Communication: Affecting/Sensing the Environment
- Introduction
- The Five Senses
- Hearing
- Seeing
- Smelling
- Touching
- Tasting etc.: Dancing honey bees
-
Insect Societies: Creating an Environment
- Introduction
- Provisioned Nests
- Progressive Provisioning
- The Social Condition: Ex. Termites
- Fascinating Feats of Ants
- A Tool-Using Wasp
-
Conclusion: The State of Human/Insect Relations
- Introduction to Entomology
-
Damages
- Crop pests
- Storage pests
- Structural pests
- Medical/Veterinary pests
- Ecological damages by people
- Insecticides
- uses
- hazards
- immune pest populations
-
Benefits
- Beekeeping
- Insect products
- Genetic experiments
- Soil-building
- Insects as wildlife food
- Weed-eating
- Biological control
- predatory insects
- parasitic insects
- insectaries
- Conclusion: The Age of Instinct And Intelligence
Downloadable & Printer-Friendly
To view or print PDF documents you will need Adobe Reader software, pre-installed on most computers and available for free download.
Before you print, please consider our environment.
Although I formatted the outline at left to be consistent with this Web site and the PDF file above to be printer-friendly, I wrote the script itself in proper Writers Guild of America format.
