Tiny Rice Weevil Wins 2025 Nikon Small World Photo Contest
▼ Summary
– Zhang You from China won the 2025 Nikon Small World photomicrography contest with a detailed image of a rice weevil on a grain of rice.
– The winning photograph provides new insights into the structure and behavior of rice weevils, a common agricultural pest.
– You emphasized that combining artistic skill with scientific understanding and lighting techniques is key to creating standout photomicrography.
– Capturing the rice weevil with its wings spread was a rare and fortunate occurrence, as manually preparing such specimens is very difficult.
– The Nikon Small World contest, started in 1974, highlights the beauty and complexity of microscopic subjects and has evolved with digital imaging advances.
A remarkable photograph of a rice weevil perched on a solitary grain of rice has claimed the top prize in the 2025 Nikon Small World photomicrography competition. This winning entry provides fascinating new details about the anatomy and habits of a common agricultural insect, offering a unique viewpoint on its world. The image was captured by Zhang You from Yunnan, China, who also secured fifteenth place with another submission in the same contest.
Zhang You emphasized the importance of combining entomological knowledge with technical skill. He explained that producing exceptional work requires not only a deep understanding of insect behavior but also precise control over lighting. A truly outstanding photograph, he noted, merges artistic vision with scientific accuracy to convey the vitality and character of its tiny subjects.
Chance also played a role in creating the award-winning picture. You mentioned that while he had previously seen rice weevils inside grains, he had never encountered one with its wings fully extended. This particular specimen was found naturally preserved on a windowsill, possibly in a last effort to fly away. Given the insect’s minute size, manually arranging a spread-wing specimen is exceptionally challenging, making this discovery both fortunate and motivating.
The Nikon Small World competition began in 1974 with the goal of revealing the intricate beauty visible through light microscopes. Photomicrography is the technique of connecting a camera to a microscope, whether optical or electron, enabling the capture of high-resolution images of microscopic subjects. One of the early pioneers was British physiologist Richard Hill Norris, who used the method to study blood cells as far back as 1850. Since the 1970s, photomicrography has gained recognition as an artistic medium, supported over the years by significant technological progress, especially following the introduction of digital imaging systems.
(Source: Ars Technica)