Angry queen - Piotr Naskrecki - Wildlife Photographer of the Year2008

2008: Animal Portraits - Highly Commended

Piotr Naskrecki Enlarge image Angry queen

Piotr Naskrecki (Poland)

Angry queen

'I put a portable diffusion box over the queen ant to smooth out the reflection from its shiny armour. The ant soon made its feelings clear by bending its abdomen forwards, ready to spray me with formic acid. I quickly released it, so it could go forth and multiply in its Cambodian home. And multiply…' Armoured ants, as their name suggests, are equipped with incredibly hard exoskeletons and sharp spines. Once a year, the nest produces many new queens and males. A new queen will mate with one or more males before flying off to begin a colony of its own. The queens are able to store the male ant's sperm internally and will use this to fertilise millions of eggs during their lifetime.

Canon EOS-1D Mark II + Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens; 1/160 sec at f16; 400 ISO; Canon MT-24EX and two Canon 580EX flashes + small diffusion box.

This photograph is available to buy as a print.