The lives of most worker leaf-cutter ants - all of them females - are spent carrying bits of leaves back to their nest, to be used as compost to grow fungus for food.
The result is a constant trail of ants to and from the nest. To photograph antwork up close, Bence chose to work at night in the Costa Rican rainforest, which is when the ants are most busy. To get an ant's-eye view, he lay belly-down, with two flashes lighting the branch 'road' being used by the workers and two flashes behind to backlight the ants. Here one of the smaller ants, referred to as a minor, is hitching a lift. But it has a job to do, too. Parasitic flies patrol the workers' lines, trying to lay their eggs on the ants, and it is the minor's job to protect her larger sister against the danger.
Hungary
Bence is a wildlife photographer from Hungary. Since 2008 he has been designing wildlife photography hides around the world, including in Hungary, Costa Rica, Brazil, Norway, South Africa and Transylvania (Romania). He was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2010.
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