Adele Dellit, Last flight (ANIMALS 2025)

Bees’ wings are marvels of engineering, but they do wear out over time. A forager bee like this one may clock up thousands of flights over several weeks, dodging wind, brushing against flower petals and even small rain showers—all of which gradually fray those delicate wing veins. By the time you see a bee with tattered wings, it’s often nearing the end of its foraging “career” — still hard at work gathering pollen, but running on its last reserves.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.