A shy predator

[Prajwal J Ullal]

ID: Glow worm female feeding on a snail

While traversing down the hill, we stumbled upon this beautiful specimen, all digging in into the snail’s shell, feeding onto the appetite. The intensity and engrossment of the lady was so deep that it was hardly bothered by all the passerbys getting down the trail and even with us probing into its space. The prehistoric like beauty with its segmented and skeletal body made it look very intimidating and this scene cemented that feeling even more

EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro + Raynox
F/14
Shutterspeed 1/125
ISO 500
Handheld, external flash fired

Location: Manpada trail

[Mrudul Godbole]

Glow worm female does look quite different from other worms. Specially the nail(?) like leg in the foreground. How does one differentiate between a male and female? The shell with the water drop on it looks nice. Was it possible to include the rear part of the worm by shifting the camera a bit more to the left (removing the space on the right)? Thanks for sharing.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Lovely find. Surprised you got such low DoF at f14... is it an effect created by the Raynox? I think this could be a glowworm larva rather than an adult female, but I'm not sure.

[Prajwal J Ullal]

I couldnt move to the left as there was a rock over there, tried my best to get a clearer shot

@Abhishek, could be true, i am not sure about it.