Slideshow: Finalist Entries in 15th Annual Photo Contest

Retired Australian insect enthusiast Zol Straub submitted this up-close Calliphora auger photo. “My interest in insects stems from an inquisitive mind and an openness to the challenge of taking macro photographs exposing details in an insect that at normal sight is not apparent.”

“These worker termites were found coming out of the floor of the library in a school in New London, Conn. This was on the lowest level, slab construction, approximately 15 feet from an exterior wall in an open area,” said photographer, Adam Bourgun, of Griggs & Browne, Waterford, Conn.

Dennis Judy of Allgood Pest Solutions, Lawrenceville, Ga., calls this photo “Snail of Snellville (Ga.)” His grandson actually spotted it in his backyard and the two enticed it out to crawl across an old decayed slab of wood.

Daniel Dye, training director of Florida Pest Control, Gainesville, Fla., captured this photo of a blister beetle “just before it took flight. “Perfect timing,” he said.

Bob Richardson of McCarthy Pest Control, St. Charles, Mo., photographed this honeybee, which he said “spent the night on a penstemon flower at the University of Missouri Extension Service in St. Peters, Mo.”

Jody Green, extension educator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, snapped this photo of a beautiful cuckoo wasp (Family Chrysididae). “It was a cool (56°F) and rainy day and I saw it on a leaf. It was moving very slowly and actually came to rest in my warm hands and rolled up into a ball,” she said.

LSU’s Claudia Husseneder submitted this photo of a mason bee (Osmia chalybea), found in her backyard in Bayou Paul, Saint Gabriel, La. “Although mason bees usually use mud to build their nests, this species does what the closely related leafcutter bees do: cut leaves (like those of my favorite rose bush in the picture) to separate the cells in their nests.”

Wally Holden of Leesburg, Fla., found and photographed this spider while conducting a termite inspection. He knelt below the spider to clarify the focus on the distinct colorings.

This female brown and yellow paper wasp, Polistes major major, is chewing wood fibers from a fence post to masticate into paper mache for her paper nest under construction. Photo was taken by entomologist Gerry Wegner, of Vero Beach, Fla.

WINNING PHOTO: Ed Freytag, senior entomologist at the New Orleans Mosquito, Termite and Rodent Control Board, wins PCT’s annual contest with a beautiful photo he submitted of an acorn weevil.