© Wei Fu, Markham, Canada
This type of red ant is a common insect in Thailand and very tough on any prey no matter how big it is. When I was searching for insects to shoot in the grass and bushes, I found this little gecko’s tail being bitten and held tightly by the red ant. The ant was trying to pull the gecko off from the leaf, I quickly focused on it and clicked the shutter to catch this moment, after struggling desperately for a few seconds the gecko was able get rid of the ant and run away.
© Satpal Singh, Mohammadi, India
Weaver Ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) are known for their hard work and cooperation. These ants exhibit marvelous architecture and intelligence to build their nest with leaves. When a new nest is required, individual workers scout for suitable clusters of leaves, which they grab with their mandibles and attempt to draw together. When a number of leaves are stretched into position for binding, each held in place by rows of workers joined by another set of workers as is depicted in the picture. As soon as all the leaves are brought together the process of stitching these leaves starts. The mature and experienced workers capture white colored and transparent late instar larvae with quite delicacy in their mandibles and move them to and fro on the edges of the young tender leaves. In response to this movement or tingling feeling, the larvae release sticky material from their glands and a white sheet of silk joins the leaves one by one. This behavioral characteristic of ‘stitching or weaving leaves’ for nest formation is unique among these ants, and the reason behind their name ‘Weaver Ants’.
© Nori Yuasa, Hyogo, Japan
This is a group of Shinano Tomoshibi mushrooms; Scientific name: Mycena lux-coeli. These glowing mushroom can only be seen in several places in Japan and in the entire world. They only grow for a short time around the end of June. Since I wanted to show this bunch of mushrooms like family living in the hollow of a tree I shot this photo in the middle of the night just using the light of the mushrooms. It was raining a little. This group of mushrooms were shining for only a few days and withered the next day. My history of photograph is long and I have taken many photographs of the starry sky. About 8 years ago I started taking pictures of natural glowing things such as fireflies and sea fireflies at night.
© Karthikeyan Shanmugasundaram, Coimbatore, India
During a wet morning while I was scouting for some shots of sand wasps, I captured this incredible moment where a sand wasp was carrying a paralyzed hover fly to safe guard the food by burying it for it’s to be born little ones. It was very difficult to capture this moment particularly in flight because they fly very fast while entering into its nest and after many missed mo-ment’s finally I captured the shot I was aiming for.
© Asela Karunaratne, Kurunegala, Sri Lanka
Though I have photographed Dung beetles before, they were shots taken while I was standing above the beetle and they were not creative. Since realizing the value of taking a shot of a little beetle while rolling its dung ball, I have been looking for them whenever I visit places where they can be found. But I had to wait more than five years to see this type of action again. This time it was in Yala National Park. This time I thought it’s time for me to take a low angle shot of it. The beetle was on a dung mountain which was on grass, I took a few shots while lying down on the ground, then he dragged the ball on to the grass, but that was not the shot I was looking for. So while I was waiting on the ground the beetle dragged its dung ball on to a gravel surface.
© Ankur Moitra, Mumbai, India
It was late night by the time the rain had stopped, I went to the field and there I found this gecko sitting on top of a rock. After a few clicks I finally got a decent shot. Most Geckos can’t blink as they don’t have eyelids. Like snakes, their eyeballs are covered with spectacles and transparent scales that protect the eyes. To keep them clean, many species use their tongues like windshield wipers. They also drink water in a similar way. I clicked this image with the help of 50mm f/1.8 along with attaching a Voking 12mm extension tube.
© Karthikeyan Shanmugasundaram, Coimbatore, India
© Minghui Yuan, Wuhan, China
© Vinod (Baiju) Patil, Aurangabad, India
© By Minghui Yuan, Wuhan, China
© Satpal Singh, Mohammadi, India
© Minghui Yuan, Wuhan, China