38 incredible images of bugs

A banded demoiselle waits for sunrise.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

This stripy snail was pictured just outside London.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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!”

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.

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