Overview: Butterflies have been flying around our planet for over 50 million years, and today around 20,000 different species inhabit the globe. From egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to the winged insect, we follow their life stages, highlighting their survival techniques and the new science that is unlocking the secrets of their world and changing our view of these fantastic and yet fragile creatures.

DVD Verdict: 'Nature: Sex, Lies & Butterflies' explores the butterflies' astonishing survival techniques, including 360° vision, deceptive camouflage, chemical weaponry and fantastic flight.

Through sophisticated macro-filming, we look beyond the butterflies' bright colors and fragile beauty to follow them on one of the greatest migrations on earth.

Personally, I knew next to nothing (and that's me being generous) about butterflies, so this new PBS documentary 'Nature: Sex, Lies & Butterflies' was a real learning curve for me.

Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly colored wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight.

The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers (formerly the superfamily "Hesperioidea") and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies (formerly the superfamily "Hedyloidea"). Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, which was about 56 million years ago.

Butterflies have the typical four-stage insect life cycle. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis.

When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, and after its wings have expanded and dried, it flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take several years to pass through their entire life cycle.

We learn that butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species make use of camouflage, mimicry and aposematism to evade their predators. Some, like the monarch and the painted lady, migrate over long distances.

Many butterflies are attacked by parasites or parasitoids, including wasps, protozoans, flies, and other invertebrates, or are preyed upon by other organisms.

Some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees; other species are agents of pollination of some plants. Larvae of a few butterflies (e.g., harvesters) eat harmful insects, and a few are predators of ants, while others live as mutualists in association with ants.

Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts and 'Nature: Sex, Lies & Butterflies' tells it like it is, indepth and to perfection. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

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