You’ve probably seen it. A few years ago, a photo started making the rounds on social media that looked like a still from a high-budget horror movie. It was red, hairy, and had these glowing, demonic eyes that seemed to stare right through your screen. People were freaking out. Was it an alien? A practical effect from a new Guillermo del Toro flick? Nope. It was just a close up ant face.
Actually, it was a very specific photo taken by Lithuanian photographer Eugenijus Kavaliauskas. He submitted it to the 2022 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. It didn't win the top prize, but it definitely won the internet's collective anxiety. What most people got wrong, though, was what they were actually looking at. Those big, red, glowing orbs? Those aren't eyes.
Ants are basically the engineers of the dirt, but when you zoom in 5x or 20x using a microscope, they look like something out of a Lovecraftian novel. It's weird because we walk over them every day without a second thought. But up close? They are terrifyingly complex.
The Anatomy of a Close Up Ant Face Explained
To understand why a close up ant face looks so bizarre, you have to realize that insect anatomy doesn't follow our rules. In Kavaliauskas’s famous shot, the "eyes" are actually the bases of the ant's antennae. If you look at the full head of a carpenter ant (which is what that was), the actual eyes are much further back and surprisingly small compared to the rest of the head.
Evolution is a trip. Every single hair, or seta, on an ant’s face serves a purpose. Some are for sensing vibrations. Others are for detecting chemical signals. When you see a high-resolution macro shot, you're seeing a sensory array that makes our five senses look like basic equipment.
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Mandibles: More Than Just Teeth
If you look at the bottom of the face, you see the mandibles. These aren't just "teeth." They are multi-tools. Depending on the species, like the Odontomachus (trap-jaw ant), these mandibles can snap shut at speeds of over 140 miles per hour. That’s faster than a blink.
It's honestly wild.
Some ants use them to crush seeds, while others use them to decapitate rivals or carry larvae. Under a microscope, you can see the serrations. They look like jagged saws. If you were the size of a crumb, an ant face would be the last thing you'd ever want to see.
How Photographers Get These Shots
You can't just point your iPhone at the ground and expect to see the "horror" face. It takes serious gear. Most of these viral images are created using a technique called focus stacking.
Because the depth of field is so shallow at high magnification, a single photo will only have a tiny sliver of the ant in focus. The photographer has to take dozens, sometimes hundreds, of photos at slightly different focus points. Then, they use software like Helicon Focus or Zerene Stacker to blend them into one crisp image.
- They find a specimen (usually deceased, as they move too fast).
- They clean it—dust looks like giant boulders at this scale.
- They use a macro lens or a microscope objective attached to a bellows system.
- They light it with diffused LEDs to avoid harsh glare on the chitin.
Eugenijus Kavaliauskas used a 5x reflected light technique. It brings out the textures of the exoskeleton, which is made of chitin. Chitin is basically the same stuff in shrimp shells, but on an ant, it's arranged in a way that provides incredible structural integrity. It looks like weathered leather or beaten metal when you get close enough.
Why We Find Them So Creepy
There is a psychological element here. It’s called the "Uncanny Valley," but for bugs. We recognize features—mouth, hair, "eyes"—but they are arranged in a way that feels wrong to our mammalian brains.
Biologist Dr. Miles Zhang, who works with the Smithsonian, often points out that our fear comes from a lack of familiarity. When we see a close up ant face, we are seeing a creature that has been refined by 140 million years of evolution. They are built for efficiency, not aesthetics.
The hairs (setae) are particularly unsettling. On a human, hair is soft. On an ant, it looks like needles or stiff bristles. These bristles help the ant navigate in total darkness. They feel the air currents. They are living sensors.
Variety Across Species
Not all ant faces look like demons.
- Honeypot ants have somewhat smoother, more rounded features.
- Leafcutter ants have massive, bulging heads to house the muscles needed to power their jaws.
- Bullet ants look exactly as mean as their sting feels—angular, dark, and heavily armored.
If you look at a Cephalotes (door-head ant), their face is literally a shield. They use their flat heads to plug the entrance of their nests. It's a literal living door. Nature is just flexing at that point.
The Role of Microscopy in Science
Beyond just giving us nightmares, these images are vital for taxonomy. Scientists use the specific arrangement of hairs and the shape of the clypeus (the front of the head) to tell species apart.
Sometimes, two ants look identical to the naked eye. You put them under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and suddenly you see that one has a slightly different ridge on its brow. Boom. New species.
The SEM images are even crazier than the Nikon photo. Since they use electrons instead of light, they can't show color, but the detail is insane. You can see the individual pores where pheromones are secreted. It turns the close up ant face into a topographical map of a foreign planet.
What This Means for Macro Photography
The "scary ant" trend changed things for hobbyist photographers. It proved there is a massive audience for the "micro-monster" aesthetic. You don't need a $50,000 lab setup anymore. With a decent DSLR, a set of extension tubes, and a cheap microscope objective from eBay, people are capturing these details in their backyards.
It’s a bit of a reality check. We think we own the world, but there are trillions of these tiny, armored faces patrolling the soil beneath us. They have their own wars, their own hierarchies, and their own "technology" built right into their faces.
How to See This Yourself
If you want to move beyond just looking at viral photos and actually explore this micro-world, here is how you start.
Invest in a Loupe
You don't need a microscope yet. A 10x or 20x jeweler’s loupe costs about $15. Go outside, find a slow-moving ant (or a dead one on a windowsill), and take a look. Even at 10x, the mandibles and the segments of the antennae become clear.
Use Your Phone’s Macro Mode
Most modern flagship phones have a macro setting that kicks in when you get within an inch of an object. It won't give you the Kavaliauskas "horror" look, but you'll see the hairs on the thorax and the complexity of the compound eyes.
Join a Community
Check out groups like the "Macro Photography" subreddit or the "Small World" galleries on the Nikon website. Seeing the work of experts like Levon Biss, who spends weeks photographing a single insect, will give you a new appreciation for the scale of this work.
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Look at the Eyes
Next time you see a high-res photo, look for the compound eyes. They are made of thousands of tiny lenses called ommatidia. Ants don't see high-resolution images like we do; they see a mosaic. They are incredibly good at detecting motion, which is why they're so hard to catch.
Respect the Specimen
If you’re going to try photography, please don't kill insects just for a "cool" shot. There are plenty of naturally deceased ants to be found. The detail is just as good, and it’s a lot more ethical for the hobby.