MEGAPIXELS

Ants, sprites and eco-farming in our look at science in pictures

Army ants switch between living in a colony and being nomads in search of a new home. When in their travel mode, they need to protect their resting queen en route, so the colony’s soldiers stand on top of each other, interlocking their legs to form a structure that acts as a temporary nest. When daylight comes, the army moves on to new battlefields, consuming up to 500,000 creatures per day on the way. The brave photographer here was nominated in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for this image, taken in Costa Rica.