"READY-OR-NOT-HERE-I-COME."

The boy listens.
The girl is getting closer.
Suddenly, there's another sound.
A droning buzz.
Something else is looking for the boy.

The seeker is a mosquito, Culex pipiens, and her search is a matter of life and death. She must find food—blood—to nourish the hundreds of tiny eggs inside her body.

Black-and-white photographs show the children's game of hide-and-seek, while astonishing micrographs show Culex and her world as seen through an electron microscope. Zoom in for a close-up view: A blade of grass looks like a menacing field of spines. A mosquito's eye becomes a bundle of tightly packed tubes.

Discover the life story of a mosquito from a truly larger-than-life point of view.