Science Visualized Animals

Ant face patterns like swirls and stubble might have practical value

A lab team spent the pandemic lockdown studying thousands of photos of ant faces

A close up of the face of a black ant, which is covered in fingerprint-like ridges

Raised ridges resemble fingerprint lines on the face of this Polyrhachis decora ant. These ridges are just one of the textures that inspired some scientists to study thousands of ant faces during the pandemic.

April Nobile/www.antweb.org (CC BY 4.0 DEED)

By Susan Milius

National Harbor, Md. — Looking at face patterns in photos of more than 11,000 kinds of ants struck entomologist Clint Penick as a fine pandemic-lockdown project for his students.