A close-up photo of an ant’s face published last week is the hot new reason I can’t sleep at night because this is beyond terrifying.
It’s not an artist’s impression, it’s not a CGI dragon from House of the Dragon, it’s a real photograph of a carpenter ant by Lithuanian photographer Eugenijus Kavaliauskas shown at five-times magnification.
Image from a horror movie? Nope. That’s the very real face of an ant.
An ant.
Now you have to think about that all night. pic.twitter.com/HOWLTlnfJ1— Rebekah McKendry, PhD (@RebekahMcKendry) October 17, 2022
Maybe I’ve been binging the Rings of Power too hard lately and thinking about Lord of the Rings too much in general but tell me this ant doesn’t look like the leader of the Uruk-hai.
The blood-chilling photo of the ant’s red eyes, glowing teeth and horn-like antennae came in as a runner-up in Nikon’s 2022 Photomicrography Competition this month, beaten by a pic of a gecko’s foot. Seriously.
This image of the embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko (with nerves in cyan), by Grigorii Timin, won this year’s @NikonSmallWorld Photomicrography Competition https://t.co/xzKFEl3hx2 pic.twitter.com/udZwEBtiWw
— Moheb Costandi (@mocost) October 12, 2022
Like it’s cool, and I don’t know anything about micro-photography techniques, but this ant pic definitely made me feel something which is the point of art, no?
Anyway. Back into the abyss.
The horrifying ant in question has sent social media into a frenzy and made people dizzy and afraid.
Whatever u do don’t search on Google “Ants face magnified”
— мαℓιнα 🍓 (@MalihaBhalloo) October 21, 2022
Whoever took that close up picture of that ant’s face need their ass beat. That is terrifying.
— dawan.🥀 (@ooola_wan) October 21, 2022
One TikTokker who posted a viral video of the photo questioned why it hadn’t been bigger news and we are wondering the same thing. Everyone lost their minds at the deepest, furthest and most detailed photos ever captured of space which NASA published in July and this ant is just as important imo.
@bsaremyinitials I’m out. #greenscreen #fyp #nikon ♬ original sound – braydensingley
People have also pointed out on social media the photo release’s spooky proximity to Halloween and fuck yes, that’s my Halloween costume sorted.