Final Frame: Prickly Pollinator

A photographer captures a mosquito pollinating a rare orchid

• NWF Staff
• PhotoZone
• Jun 01, 2015

"WHAT ARE MOSQUITOES GOOD FOR?" It’s a question entomologist and photographer Mark Moffett hears often. When he learned that a species of Aedes mosquito pollinates a rare orchid, Platanthera obtusata, he finally had an answer—and an opportunity to show “a less clichéd example of an animal fertilizing a flower.” But making this image of the mosquito lifting off the orchid in Minnesota—with pollen stuck to its snout and a red mite nearby—proved perilous.

Unable to wear mosquito repellent near his subjects, Moffett says he “ended up with so many bites it looked like I had Moby Dick written in braille on my skin.”











See the amazing photos entered in the 2015 
National Wildlife Photo Contest!


More from National Wildlife magazine and NWF

See the Winning 2014 Photo Contest Images
Tips for Making Better Nature Photos