Cute picture of a damsel not in misery wins biology journal pictures competitors

A pictures competitors hosted by a pair of organic science journals has revealed the winner of its 2026 version, with the topped picture depicting a damsel that is moderately curious – not in misery.

Now in its third 12 months, the BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology picture competitors celebrates pictures depicting the sweetness and variety of life on Earth. Photographers should be affiliated with a analysis establishment and work in both ecology, evolutionary biology, paleontology or zoology.

This 12 months’s total competitors winner, Window to the Wetlands, got here from Sritam Kumar Sethy, a nature photographer and self-professed “science enthusiast” learning at Berhampur University in northeastern India.

His picture captured an orange-tailed marsh dart damselfly (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) framed by a gap in a leaf. Rather than flying away in misery, the curious insect stayed put, peering immediately on the digital camera.

The competitors judges praised the picture as “beautifully composed and vivid,” with Sethy commenting that it sheds mild on the “often-overlooked world of freshwater biodiversity.”

Along with Sethy’s total profitable scene, the judges topped pictures in three separate classes.

First place within the Relationships in Nature class went to Victor Huertas from James Cook University in Australia, for his “dramatic snapshot” of two male big Australian cuttlefish (Ascarosepion apama) competing for a feminine throughout an annual spawning aggregation.

Liam Brennan of the University of New Brunswick, Canada, took the Research in Action class for his “atmospheric” picture of scholars investigating the native fish inhabitants underneath a moonlit sky in shallow coastal waters.

Meanwhile, Allen Tian, a researcher at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, snagged the Protecting Our Planet class with a artistic stereographic drone shot of Long Sault Parkway on the western finish of the St Lawrence Seaway.

As the general winner, Sethy took residence €500 (roughly $580 / £420 / AU$820), whereas every class winner claimed €200 (roughly $230 / £170 / AU$330). The profitable pictures can even characteristic in an editorial story revealed in BMC Ecology and Evolution.

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