Environmental Graffiti

Face to Face with an Ant Seeing Red

This incredible microscopic image makes you glad you're five or six feet tall, not five or six inches. If we were that small, of course we wouldn't stand much of a chance against these formidable insects, which may form up to a quarter of the mass of living creatures in a given ecosystem. But even though you wouldn't want to get bitten by an even vaguely oversized ant's mandibles, it's strange how like ants we are.

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The Most Painful Animal Bite on Earth

Remember how whiny you were when your parents made you get a job or mow the lawn or whatever it was you had to do to "become a man/woman?" Feel like a sissy looking back on how "hard" you had it then? If not, you will. The Setere-Mawe people of Brazil have found something far worse (albeit less humiliating) than your first job at McDonald's. Meet the bullet ant.

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