#roberto garcia-roa

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“The hunter becomes hunted”

by Roberto García-Roa, Department of Biology, Lund University.

“The frenetic combat between the pompilid wasp and the spider suddenly stopped. A tense calm invaded the scene: “the calm after the storm”, I thought. At that point, a subtle but crucial behaviour for both contenders had begun. The wasp needed to confirm if its sting had paralyzed its dangerous prey before bringing it to her nest. Wasps of the family Pompilidae are called “spider wasps” because females are sophisticated hunters of spiders, which are used as a living food by their offspring. An arm race between two groups of iconic hunters in the tropical forests of Peru.”

British Ecological Society Photo Contest

[morethanus-life]

Second runner-up : Connections by Roberto García-Roa/University of Valencia, Spain

Conservation cannot be understood without taking into account the interaction among species. The disappearance of one species might affect other connected species (prey, predators). This pictures shows a crab spider attacking a bee.

Photograph: Roberto García-Roa/University of Valencia/BMC Ecology Image Competition 2017

[sitting-on-me-bum]

The story of a conquest. The fruiting body of a parasitic fungus erupts from the body of its victim.

Attribution: Roberto García-Roa

BMC Ecology And Evolution Image Competition

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Cerastes vipera

Living fossil. Morocco.

(Photo: Roberto García-Roa, University of Valencia/British Ecological Society)