Close-up photo of an ant's face goes viral - The Washington Post

The photograph — which was honored with a distinction successful Nikon’s 2022 Small World Photomicrography Competition — was rapidly dubbed by Twitter users arsenic nightmare fuel.

Yet for Kavaliauskas, the photograph helium captured by magnifying an ant’s look 5 times nether a stereo 10x microscope is an illustration of “God’s designs and the galore interesting, beautiful, chartless miracles nether people’s feet,” helium told The Washington Post.

A person of each things nature, Kavaliauskas began his wildlife photography vocation by shooting images of birds of prey — including immoderate that earned him awards. But 4 years ago, a tendency to unearth the world’s secrets, a passionateness for the “unseen angle” and lessons from his person and chap lensman Saulius Gugis inspired him to instrumentality connected photomicrography, oregon capturing images nether a microscope. The trade wholly changed his outlook, helium said.

“There are nary horrors successful nature, lone deficiency of knowledge,” Kavaliauskas said. “When I began photomicrography and earlier that, I was similar everyone other — each beetles and insects were monsters to me. Now the concern has turned upside down. Many insects are not arsenic pleasing to the oculus arsenic a cat, but it each depends connected your constituent of view.”

The thought to photograph a carpenter ant — a taxon that chews done wood to technologist tunnels for its nests — came by looking astatine the small bugs crawling successful the trees successful the wood adjacent his location successful Tauragė, Lithuania. He landed connected the representation by playing astir with the shadows and airy hitting the ant’s face.

The zoomed-in photograph really makes the ant look a spot much menacing than it should. For instance, the reddish spheres successful the ant’s seemingly sneering look aren’t its eyes, which are hidden successful the shot; they’re wherever its antennae start. And the sharp-looking things coming retired of its jaw are really teeny-tiny trigger hairs, utilized to pass and consciousness the situation astir them.

“If you would’ve taken a representation of that aforesaid ant’s caput conscionable a small spot farther back, it would person been astir cute,” said Miles Maxcer, a National Science Foundation postgraduate probe chap with the University of Florida’s section of entomology and nematology. “I curse immoderate ants tin beryllium truly cute and fuzzy!”

Where immoderate find horror, scientists spot a taxon that helps plants disperse, aerates ungraded and keeps ecosystems cleanable by acting arsenic a benignant of top-notch discarded disposal and recycling service.

Even if the carpenter ant isn’t a stunner — or, say, arsenic adorable arsenic a aureate retriever puppy — it’s cute successful different ways, said Maxcer, who’s besides the manager of the Ant Network, a subject connection organization.

Carpenter ants person an “almost domesticated relationship” with aphids, tiny bugs that suck plants’ juices and past crook them into honeydew, a sugary liquid they secrete that’s an important root of nutrient for carpenter ants. Aphids, helium said, are “the astir pathetic defender of its ain body,” truthful carpenter ants instrumentality it upon themselves to support them from predators, usher them and support them lukewarm during the wintertime months.

“What these ants bash is workplace the aphids, benignant of similar however humans workplace cattle,” Maxcer said. “We support our dairy cows, we provender them, we marque definite that nothing’s going to wounded them, and successful instrumentality we get milk. Well, carpenter ants bash the same, but they get honeydew.”

Maxcer said ants are large engineers, taking connected incredibly analyzable architecture to physique their nests. They besides dabble successful agriculture by cultivating fungi and are highly societal creatures, with organized colonies that could rival immoderate large city.

And ants — though somewhat terrifying up adjacent — are considered a “keystone species,” oregon an instrumental organism that acts similar the glue keeping a situation together.

“What ants bash successful ecosystems is truly far-ranging,” Maxcer said. “If you took ants retired of astir ecosystems astir the world, you would spot them alteration dramatically and, successful immoderate instances, collapse.”

Might privation to support that successful caput earlier squishing 1 — oregon losing slumber implicit that haunting photo.