Advances in macro photography and the development of the electron microscope have shown us a world nature never intended for us to see. Over the years, they’ve shown us how very ugly insects can be if you take a close look!
Mosquitos are considered ugly even when we don’t get a closeup view. Our model seems to have lost one antenna before posing for a portrait. This picture is from Lehigh University, where you can get a short course on electron microscopy.
A wolf spider looks much more menacing when you stare him in the face. This image by photographer Steven Flanagan gets up close and personal. I wonder if he can see us with those eight eyes as well as the camera sees him!
Continue reading for bugs that take prizes for ugliness.
The Oklahoma Microscopic Society has an annual Ugly Bug Contest. The contest for 2008 begins in August. This Dobsonfly, submitted by Sulphur Elementary, was featured in the Live Science article World’s Ugliest Animals.
This Carolina Sphinx Moth was one of the Grand Prize winners in the 2007 Ugly Bug Contest. This photo was submitted by Newcastle Middle School in Newcastle, Oklahoma. Note the tightly coiled tongue.
This prizewinning photo of a Spiny Assassin Bug was submitted to the Oklahoma contest in 2007 by Community Christian School in Norman, Oklahoma.
Screw worm larvae (Cochliomyia) burrow into any available food source, such as livestock, and cause maggot infestation. The USDA came up with a control procedure that involved breeding huge numbers of Cochliomyia that were sterile, and releasing then to compete for mates. Fruitless mating led to vastly reduced numbers of screw worms. Insert your own punch line.
As beautiful as butterflies and moths are to human eyes, under a microscope they can scare the daylights out of you! This image of a pyralidae moth was taken with a scanning electron microscope. Note the retractable tongue.
Male seed beetles have penises covered with sharp spikes that can cause injuries to the females. His face is probably better looking, which isn’t saying much.
Centipedes are creepy enough to a normal human eye. This microscopic picture show that no matter how small you are, you can still have crumbs on your face! This specimen was submitted to the 1995 Flagstaff Festival of Science Ugly Bug Contest.
This enhanced photograph of an aphid was a contestant in the 1998 Flagstaff Ugly Bug contest.
Allomerus decemarticulatus, a type of Amazon ant, builds traps to snare and then dismember other insects.
Dust mites are normally about half a millimeter long, and can be seen with a magnifying glass if the light is right. But you don’t want to see them in your home, even though you know they are there!
See also:
Delightful Insects of Summer
Honeybees: Master of Utility
Ugly Jugs
Comments (10)
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Thanks for posting these, the wolf spider and the moths are still beautiful to me.
posted by babel on 4-29-2008 at 9:35 am
Um… is that a Seed Beetle penis we’re looking at??!?! Shouldn’t this be NSFW? Hahahaha. Oh my goodness, the dust mite makes me want to vaccum 12 hours a day!!!!!!!
posted by Kelly J on 4-29-2008 at 9:38 am
Awww, I think they’re kinda cute….except for the spiky penis thing.
posted by Johnny Cat on 4-29-2008 at 10:37 am
I like em too. But sorry to say, wolf spiders have very poor eyesight.
posted by Anthony on 4-29-2008 at 10:54 am
Yay for Oklahoma. I’m so excited to hear that we have an Ugly Bug Contest.
Seriously, though: those pictures are amazing, even if they are disgusting.
posted by adrienne on 4-29-2008 at 12:47 pm
I had this ENORMOUS spider on my front patio/concrete slab, right outside my front door, a few months ago. I’m never too happy about squishing bugs but the alternative is worse so I always do. This one, however, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of because it was just so big. Luckily I live in an apartment complex and I found a guy on his patio a few doors away. I asked him to come and get rid of this ginormous spider and at first I think that he thought I was just being a prissy girl, but when he saw it he was shocked too. He got pretty close to it and took a good look first, before squishing it with just a few paper towels. (ugh) He told me that it was a wolf spider. Now, I know that he was probably not an expert, but it looked frighteningly like the one in the picture above except that it was mostly gray. It still gives me the creeps just to think about it.
posted by caitlen315 on 4-29-2008 at 12:56 pm
Elementary and middle schools are submitting some of these photographs? Do they actually have the equipment for this, or are they going to a college or lab somewhere?
When I went to school I was lucky if my district had money to furnish me a desk! I know it’s not much different in that district years later. Grr… that really irks me…
posted by Jason! on 4-29-2008 at 1:38 pm
Jason! I believe the schools submit the bugs, then the sponsoring organization does the photography. The contests I saw (and there are several) are affiliated with a university.
posted by Miss Cellania on 4-29-2008 at 3:04 pm
Ok… Thanks! I was starting to get irritated about school funding. I feel better now.
posted by Jason! on 4-29-2008 at 4:02 pm
Ugly?
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 7-29-2010 at 6:54 am