Predation

Excellent documentary photo, Jim! I wish we had a category for such unique photos as these, that show a natural phenomena. This is very clear and unquestionable. Good job!

Wow! What a fabulous shot with excellent subject, light and composition. The blood red color of the mosquitoes is a true eye-catcher. I never would have guessed that mosquitoes could penetrate the seemingly thick skin of a turtle. Love the beating wings of the mosquito in the LRC. My only nit would be to tone down the b/g in the ULC. Richard

Jim,
Great image, who invented mosqutoes

Hi Jim,

One of the most cringe-inducing shots I've seen in a while!

Like Richard said, I'm surprised that the mosquitoes are able to penetrate the scaly skin with such apparent ease (guessing they're going in at the "cracks" between the thickened regions).

Despite the mosquitoes being a tiny proportion of the entire image area, their blood-red mosquito abdomens really draw the eye and this works well. In a perfect world it would be nice to have perhaps a bit more DoF, but looking at your shutter speed I can see that this was likely not possible in this case (and the image works fine anyway).

The biologist in me says "Parasitism" (as opposed to "Predation")...but only other biologists would notice that!

Cheers...

Brad

Wow. The reds make for a grabber and the eye is easy to read expression into! Thanks for posting this one.