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Photography

38 incredible images of bugs

As the world faces a biodiversity crisis, the winners of the Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020 reveal a world bursting with colour and astonishing beauty - living right under our noses

Published 3 Nov 2020, 10:42 GMT
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A banded demoiselle waits for sunrise.

 

Photograph by © Chris Ruijter/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Taken in Saudi Arabia, this arresting image shows the palm weevil whose larvae can excavate holes up to a metre long in palm trees, weakening and even killing the host plant.

Photograph by © Mofeed Abu Shalwa /Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Male jumping spiders (Phidippus insignarius) perform a courtship dance in which they almost form the shape of a heart with their arms.

Photograph by © Raed Ammari/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Photographed in the wild at night under UV light, this image shows a green-fanged wall spider with two yellow-tailed scorpions triggering its web. The invasive species were captured in an isolated British dockyard!

Photograph by © Digby Rogers/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This photograph of the caterpillar of a Malay baron butterfly, was taken in Singapore’s Bukit Timah nature reserve.

Photograph by © Mike Chuan Kwee Lim/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This image of the stunning Old World swallowtail butterfly, newly hatched from its chrysalis and waiting for its wings to dry before its first flight, won the ‘Butterflies and Moths’ category in the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © Sara Jazbar/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This stunning image of three mayfly hanging from crested dogstail was shot on the River Kennet near Kintbury, UK, and won the ‘Flies, Bees, Wasps and Dragonflies’ category in the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © Peter Orr/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Shot in infra-red, this is a black-veined white butterfly (Aporia crataegi).

Photograph by © Sara Jazbar/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

The female acorn weevil (Curculio glandium) uses its long rostrum (snout) to drill into the centre of an acorn to lay its egg. Here a weevil takes flight.

Photograph by © Christian Brockes/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

A little digger wasp is forced to shelter indoors by the rain.

Photograph by © Rory J Lewis/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

There’s something menacing about the jaws of a stag beetle, even when seen in silhouette.

Photograph by © Martijn Nugteren/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

It’s not difficult to see how the flower crab spider gets its name. The spider can change the colour of its body to blend in with its surroundings.

Photograph by © Mofeed Abu Shalwa/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Changing the background from a garden rockery to a ceramic tile adds captivating style to this garden snail. The image won the ‘Snails and Slugs’ category in the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © David Lain/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This sea butterfly (Limacina helicina) was captured in the Sermilik fjord in eastern Greenland. These pelagic sea snails use their wing-like flaps to swim around the Arctic waters.

Photograph by © Galice Hoarau/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Taken near Inverness, Scotland, this detailed image of a snail is a wonderful composition of flora and fauna.

Photograph by © David Lain/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

A mining bee and a Willughby's leaf-cutter bee emerge from a bee hotel to create the winning image in the ‘Bug Homes’ category of the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © Lee Frost/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Taken in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, the main challenge for the photographer was to find a labyrinth spider (Agelena Labyrinthica) web that he could access with his camera without disturbing and damaging it.

Photograph by © Heath McDonald/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespillo) is a bug home to dozens of mites that hitch a ride on the beetle to get from carrion to carrion. The beetle offers both protection and transport!

 

Photograph by © Christian Brockes/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

For a glimpse into the microscopic world of invertebrates, photographer Riyad Hamzi  focus-stacked 173 separate images of this potter wasp, and in the process won the ‘Extreme Close-Up’ category in the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © Riyad Hamzi/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

The humble ant is revealed in all of its intricate glory in this detailed image.

Photograph by © Roger Mepsted/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

The carpenter bee derives its name from its nesting behaviour, when it burrows into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo.

Photograph by © Mofeed Abu Shalwa/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

There’s astonishing detail in this image of a silver Y moth, which has a conspicuous unbroken metallic silver Y-marking on its wings.

Photograph by © Stephen James/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This image of a ladybird was captured in one of the large agricultural areas in the city of Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Ladybirds prey on agricultural pests, such as aphids or scale insects, making them useful for farms.

Photograph by © Mofeed Abu Shalwa/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This image of a diamond squid, shot in Siladen, Indonesia, was taken during a blackwater (at night in the open ocean and usually over deep waters) dive. After sunset, predators like the diamond squid come close to the surface to hunt. The photograph won the ‘Aquatic Bugs’ category of the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

 

Photograph by © Galice Hoarau/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This damselfly nymph was caught while pond dipping by British photographer Neil Phillips. It was moved to a photographic aquarium, where it was still just long enough to capture a burst of images using focus bracketing, allowing for a sharp, focused stacked final picture.

Photograph by © Neil Phillips/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

A pair of weaver ants pull apart a smaller species in this dramatic image that won the ‘All the other bugs’ category in the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © Reynante Martinez/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

The sharply defined shadows of the legs and antennae of leafcutter ants are skillfully captured in this image.

Photograph by © Bence Mate/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This eared leafhopper (Ledra aurita) was found on a blackberry bush in the photographer’s local park in the UK.

Photograph by © Stephen James/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

These two European dwarf mantis were shot in Italy by Fabio Sartori using a smartphone. The image won the Mobile Phone category at the Luminar Bug Photography Awards.

Photograph by © Fabio Sartori/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This stripy snail was pictured just outside London.

Photograph by © Simon Hadleigh-Sparks/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This small dragonfly, concealed behind a blade of glass, was photographed at a small lake near Siena in Italy.

Photograph by © Fabio Sartori/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Antennae rather than horns are responsible for this beetle’s name. The antennae are often as long or longer than the beetle’s body. This specimen was shot in an Indonesian rainforest.

 

Photograph by © Mofeed Abu Shalwa/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

A total of 41 separate photographs were used to create this image of a carder bee, using a technique called a ‘focus-stack’ to counteract the shallow depth of field of extreme macro photographs.

 

Photograph by © Jamie Spensley/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This image from Australia reveals the mothercare of spiders, using natural light to create the silhouettes.

 

Photograph by © Elliot Connor/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

Back garden photography can be eye-catching as this image of a hoverfly demonstrates. 

Photograph by © Jamie Spensley/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

This shot of a lynx spider (Oxyopidae) won the ‘Arachnids’ category of the Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020. The image was taken in the mountains of Taiwan, and photographer Lung-Tsai says, “The small oxyopidaes were climbing out, followed by two days of cannibalism; the last one to survive is the king. It was quite a spectacle!”

Photograph by © Lung-Tsai Wang/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

It’s no wonder that the Latin name for the wunderpus octopus is Wunderpus Photogenicus. This shot of a larval wunderpus octopus was taken in Lembeh, Indonesia.

Photograph by © Galice Hoarau/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020

A longhorn beetle seems to stare straight into the lens. There are more than 30,000 species of longhorn beetles worldwide. 

Photograph by © Li Feng/Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020
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