The warmer, longer days of early summer are here, bringing with them a whole host of vibrant insect life at our nature reserves! Bees are busily searching for food amongst wildflowers, butterflies can be seen basking in the sunshine and dragonflies are patrolling over lakes and pools. 

For this month's photo competition theme, It's a Bug's Life, we wanted to see how you captured the fascinating world of invertebrates. Read on to discover this month's winners.

Peter photographed this gorgeous banded demoiselle damselfly briefly resting on a leaf at Brockholes, describing how tricky it can be to capture them while at rest: "I have seen a few of these at Brockholes this year. But they aren't easy to photograph before they move again."

Voters loved the colours of the damselfly in this photo, describing them as 'beautiful' and 'vibrant'. One voter said: "The photographer has captured the detail perfectly." Another voter commented that they "Love the capture of the vivid colour and clear image of the wings."

One voter commented on this image that they appreciated the "Lovely colours, contrasts and background separation." Congratulations Nell!

Learn more about the differences between dragonflies and damselflies, and how to tell them apart, over on our blog.

Thank you to everyone who took part this month; your photos were beautiful. We had so many wonderful entries that it was difficult to create a voting shortlist! The winner will be contacted via email.