It’s not a monster from HR Giger’s “Alien” nor any other scary figure from a horror movie. It’s an award-winning macro photo of… a common ant.
The photo was taken by Lithuanian photographer Eugenijus Kavaliauskas. It received an award at Nikon’s 2008 Microphotography Competition, which “recognizes outstanding photographic performance under the microscope”.
A face only a mother can love
Not that Kavaliauskas won first prize with the spectacular photo. Of the 1,300 submitted photos from 72 countries, it was enough for a special mention. Nevertheless, the macro ant spread like wildfire across the internet.
Kavaliauskas, who used to photograph birds and now insects, used reflected light for the close-up. His unretouched ant has dark red eyes and what looks like an angry expression on his face. Only a mother can love a face like that.
However, with 14,000 described and probably 20,000 to 30,000 species in total, chances are there are less grim ant faces as well. Ants are real super insects: there are said to be about ten trillion of them on Earth. Every hundredth animal is an ant. (keep)