Stunning image of a red palm weevil wins top prize at this year’s Lumina Bug Photography Awards

Butterflies and moths, snails and slugs and all other bugs also had their own categories with everything from a tug of war between two ants, a mirrored snailand a swallowtail butterfly winning top prize. 

Over 5,000 images were submitted from around the globe, competing for a total prize pool of £23,000.

The judging panel contained well-known figures including Buglife President, Germaine Greer; TV presenter and naturalist Nick Baker; and ground-breaking invertebrates photographer Levon Biss.

The competition first opened in May 2020 with the final entries submitted by September 2020. All photographers could enter up to eight images in each of the ten main categories.

The photographers had to pay to enter the competition, with a £6 charge for a single image and £80 charge for uploading the maximum number of 80 images.

All bugs had to be alive and well in order for the photo to be entered, as any method – such as freezing, spraying, pinning or killing – to keep them still was banned.