Ants under attack, birds under threat, space selfies, reflective auroras, a whole lot of flame and much more feature in this month’s Nature picture round-up.

Space selfie

Selfies may sometimes be annoying on Earth, but there is a certain gravitas to one taken by a spacecraft on a mission. In this shot the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is seen 50 kilometres from the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which it is now orbiting. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Bárðarbunga blast

Iceland's Bárðarbunga erupted on 29 August after a swarm of seismic tremors had heralded trouble. The advance notice was a boon to volcanologists, who were able to draw up a metaphorical chair and make popcorn before observing the eruption in detail. “This is absolutely unique — we’ve never had anything like it,” says Agust Gudmundsson, a geologist at Royal Holloway University of London. Credit: www.iuriebelegurschi.com

Ant in parasitic peril

Entomologist Bernardo Segura suggests that the parasitic fly shown here attacking an ant was attracted to alarm pheromones released during an ant war against a rival nest, as described in a paper Segura recently co-authored1. Segura, who is at the University of Chile in Santiago, won a prize in the 2014 BMC Ecology image competition for this image. Credit: Bernardo Segura

Yosemite aflame

Wildfires such as this one encroaching on the popular Half Dome in Yosemite National Park earlier this month are an annual occurrence in California, a state now affected by an exceptional drought. This year’s spectacular blazes forced the evacuation of hikers and rapid responses from firefighters. Credit: Darvin Atkeson/YosemiteLandscape.com

Slideshow: Evolving to extinction

The moons align

Three of Saturn's moons all came into simultaneous view of NASA’s Cassini probe on 14 July. Tethys is the large white object in the centre; Hyperion is the sphere to its left; and Prometheus is the (relatively) tiny rock that appears to graze the giant planet’s rings in the bottom of this shot. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Video: Dining out on squid

Slideshow: Aurora’s astronomy award

Video: Laniakea