Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

20th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Shadow of a Guardian

Nagla block is one of my favorite forests as it's in the city of Mumbai. On this particular day, found a bunch of eggs that had a good pattern and shape. When photographed(with flash), I saw a tiny wasp that was hiding behind the leaf checked on eggs and went back behind a leaf. During several photographs intervals, this wasp was continuously monitoring the eggs. Upon back-lit, the shadow of the wasp was on top of the eggs cluster. I later came to know from the experts that these eggs of Coreidae had been parasitic on wasps.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 11.2019
Date Uploaded: 11.2022
Photo Location: Mumbai, India
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Copyright: © Rakesh Jadhav