Life in a cubic foot in Moorea, French Polynesia

A blackspot sergeant on the reef in Moorea, French Polynesia. In five distinct and contrasting environments, from a tropical forest to a city-centre park, Liittschwager set down his 12-inch metal cube, and started watching. Each creature that passed through the cube was counted and charted with the help of his assistant and a team of biologists. Over a three-week period the team photographed each inhabitant that passed through the cube, down to creatures measuring a mere millimetre Photograph: 2010 David Liittschwager/National Geographic Photograph: David Liittschwager/guardian.co.uk In Moorea, the team discovered a vast array of species thought to only be a very small selection of the reef's full diversity. Among their findings were this frankly terrifying post-larval octopus Photograph: 2010 David Liittschwager/National Geographic Photograph: guardian.co.uk The sacoglossan sea slug ( Cyerce nigricans ) is about 2cm across Photograph: 2010 David Liittschwager/National Geographic Photograph: David Liittschwager/guardian.co.uk This sea star ( Meridiastra rapa ) is just a centimetre or so across Photograph: 2010 David Liittschwager/National Geographic Photograph: David Liittschwager/guardian.co.uk The whitespotted boxfish, (Ostracion meleagris) are about 15cm long and inhabit coral reefs. Liittschwager, a photographer best known for his large images of rare animals and plants, was amazed at the diversity and abundance of life that passed through such a small area Photograph: 2010 David Liittschwager/National Geographic Photograph: David Liittschwager/guardian.co.uk In total, more than 1,000 individual organisms were photographed, and the diversity of each environment can be seen on nationalgeographic.com . 'It was like finding little gems,' Liittschwager said Photograph: National Geographic Photograph: guardian.co.uk