Bence Máté's Image

When Bence first tried to photograph leaf-cutter ants in action, he thought it was going to be easy. It wasn't, but, he researched their complex society and spent hours following them in the Costa Rican rainforest. 'They proved to be wonderful subjects,' says Bence, who discovered that they were most active at night. He would follow a column as it fanned out into the forest. Each line terminated at a tree, shrub or bush. 'The variation in size of the pieces they cut was fascinating - sometimes small ants seemed to carry huge bits, bigger ones just small pieces.'

Of his winning shot, he says, 'I love the contrast between the simplicity of the shot and the complexity of the behaviour.' Lying on the ground to take the shot, he also discovered the behaviour of chiggers (skin-digesting mite larvae), which covered him in bites.