Rainforest Relations
Javier was fascinated by the insect behaviours he saw here. The female treehoppers were watching over their eggs, while in turn being guarded by ants. It was a challenge to capture the action of tiny animals amid a dense forest, so Javier chose a wide angle to reveal the miniature players, absorbed in the duties of their small world.
Javier was fascinated by the insect behaviours he saw here. The female treehoppers were watching over their eggs, while in turn being guarded by ants. It was a challenge to capture the action of tiny animals amid a dense forest, so Javier chose a wide angle to reveal the miniature players, absorbed in the duties of their small world.
The female treehoppers physically shield their eggs, while ants guard from a distance. The ants protect the young in exchange for being able to drink the sweet sap they excrete. Finding egg-guarding females close to each other is not unusual, perhaps because more young produce more sap, which attracts more ant guards.