A close up photograph of an ant’s face has gone viral on social media this week as the high definition image showed the ant’s face to be something straight out of a horror movie.
The photo of the basic carpenter ant was captured by Lithuanian photographer Dr. Eugenijus Kavaliauskas.
The photo was honored with distinction in Nikon’s 2022 Small World Photomicrography Competition.
“Image from a horror movie? Nope. That’s the very real face of an ant,” Rebekah McKendry, PhD, tweeted. “An ant. Now you have to think about that all night.”
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
The Washington Post reported last month that there are estimated to be 20 quadrillion ants on earth, or 20,000 trillion.
To put that into perspective, for everyone one person on earth, there are an estimated 2.5 million ants.
The report said that the total estimated biomass of the ants on earth is approximately 12 megatons of dry carbon, which is greater than the estimated mass of all the wild birds and mammals on earth combined.
“No, this isn’t some alien monster out of a horror movie, this is an actual photograph of an ant using a magnifying lens,” Dr. Yasir Qadhi tweeted in reaction to the photo. “Sleep well, my friends, and appreciate the blessings of size that your Lord has given you over this!”
“This is why you don’t scroll before bed,” Matthew Ghoult, writer at Motherboard, tweeted.
Librarian Megan Rosenberg tweeted, “My husband showed this to me last night & I felt almost irate that I now know this horror.”
“I can see this being the inspiration for a new horror movie creature,” activist Darry Wharton-Rigby tweeted.
