The winners have been announced for the first ever Luminar Bug Photography Awards.
Run in association with European invertebrate conservation charity Buglife, the competition aims to showcase the unexpected and often overlooked beauty of bugs.
Here are some of our favourites from among the winners:
Overall winner
Mofeed Abu Shalwa picked up the grand prize, winning the Luminar Bug Photographer of the Year title. The Saudi Arabian photographer first began taking pictures of bugs to help overcome his childhood phobia of insects.
This first photo shows a palm weevil, whose larvae can excavate holes up to a metre long in palm trees, weakening and even killing the host plant.
Here, Mofeed Abu Shalwa captures a blue longhorned beetle - typically characterised by extremely long antennae. This particular specimen was shot in an Indonesian rainforest.
Young photographers
The winner of the Young Bug Photographer category was Jamie Spensley from the UK, with this incredible photo of a carder bee. This piece is actually a composite of 41 separate images using a technique called 'focus-stack' which helps add depth to the final image.
This creepy image is by Elliot Connor from Sydney, Australia. Elliot cleverly uses the natural light and underexposure to create the silhouettes of the spiderlings.
A hoverfly is captured by Jamie Spensley in his back garden, who picked up third place as well as the top spot in this category.
Eight-legged friends
The competition also has individual categories for different types of invertebrates. We've picked some of our favourites from the rest of the awards below. First are everyone's favourites...arachnids!
Beetles
Things that fly and things with slime
Extreme close-ups
Aquatic bugs and all the rest
And that concludes the first ever Luminar Bug Photography Awards!
“A huge congratulations to all the participants and winners," says Matt Shardlow, CEO Buglife.
"It is often said we only save the things we know and love. Sadly this seldom applies to the bugs without whom life as we know it would come to an end. These awards will hopefully bring people closer to the beauty and value of our multi-legged friends."
