Ripan Biswas's Image

For Ripan, insects are the real lure of the Buxa Tiger Reserve. One afternoon he was intrigued by this small fly feeding inside an empty snail shell. By reverse mounting his lens to convert it to a macro and manually adjusting the settings, Ripan captured the fly’s features in remarkable detail, even the slight iridescence of its wings.

This female fly is searching for protein-rich decaying snail flesh to feed on – most likely in order to mature her eggs. She will typically lay these eggs in the shoots of grasses and cereals and her larvae will later feed there, earning this group of flies the common name ‘shoot flies’.