A worm with devil horns? Some sort of elaborate pasta creation? A vaguely nefarious tropical flower?

None of the above. This image, recently circulating on Reddit, is actually a mosquito's foot.

In a post on Reddit that garnered more than 32,000 upvotes, the photo doesn't come with much more backstory than that. But the image is actually from a scanning electron microscope made by photographer Steve Gschmeissner. It was shortlisted in the 2016 Royal Photography Society International Images for Science contest. It's been reposted around the web quite a bit since then, Gschmeissner told Live Science, possibly because of its unexpected complexity.

The image shows the end of a mosquito's leg, including a claw, scales and the pulvillus, a pad with adhesive hairs. According to Gschmeissner's photo description, these scales dot the entire bodies of mosquitos but are particularly dense near the foot, and may help protect the limb and enable the mosquito to land on water, where these insects lay their eggs.

"Insects are fantastic for that because they have all this sort of fine microscopic details," Gschmeissner said.

https://www.livescience.com/60867-weird-amazing-micro-image-goes-viral.html

Lacking the charm of Mona Lisa’s smile and bringing to mind a vision of Salvador Dalí’s mustache on an extremely bad trip, this gruesome photo that’s been gaining steam on the internet teaches a valuable lesson about the natural world: Nature is, indeed, scary.

The image was an entry in the 2016 Royal Photography Society International Images for Science contest, and more recently came to light through the website Reddit. The picture is a mosquito's foot at 800x magnification.

The photo did not win the contest, however. The five images that were selected included this stunning micrograph—a photograph taken by microscope—of the head of a tapeworm. This picture is definitely also just an insect and not all of your darkest nightmares made visually manifest on camera.

As terrifying as the mosquito leg picture looks up close, it’s a clear visual demonstration of all the things that allow the mosquitos to do what they do. Mosquitoes have small hooks along their legs that allow them to latch on to skin, and hairy pads that allow them to adhere to walls. Up close, it’s not so surprising that these features look like the teeth and tongues of some kind of demon hydra.



Live Science spoke with Steve Gschmeissner, the man who took these photos—a retired zoologist who has turned to taking images by scanning-electron microscopy full time.

"Insects are fantastic for that because they have all this sort of fine microscopic details," Gschmeissner told Live Science. “When you first put something in a microscope, you are never really sure what you're going to see.”

http://www.newsweek.com/mosquito-microscope-leg-704001

CC: Lalasticlala, Dominique

For the bolded, a smart team somewhere that comprise of scientists and engineers are researching on how to create a footwear that will enable one to walk on water using mosquitoes as case study and militarize it.

That of a tapeworm is scary. . .looks like an ET

Jesus.....Now i have more resons to hate mosquitoes

To d bleeping mod dat banned me for 5days,a day shall come when u think u are happy and ur phones and laptop shall spoil right b4 ur eyes and u will know dat d debt is paid.

mosquito pox loading...

Ewww

Mosquito!

If you wan bite me abeg do make you waka.


Na your noise I no like.

urvillagepeoplee:
To d bleeping mod dat banned me for 5days,a day shall come when u think u are happy and ur phones and laptop shall spoil right b4 ur eyes and u will know dat d debt is paid.

mosquito pox loading...

LOL! Bros, why you dey vex like so?

DaDevin:
Ewww

jdluv:
Jesus.....Now i have more resons to hate mosquitoes

That image right there is artistic and beautiful. . .

Feraz:
LOL! Bros, why you dey vex like so?




That image right there is artistic and beautiful. . .

for your eye?

Surely, mosquitoes are beautiful creatures

jdluv:
for your eye?

Yes! For my eyes!

The camera or photographer may have added some coloration to it. Beautiful captures btw.

xdos:
The camera or photographer may have added some coloration to it. Beautiful captures btw.

Yeah! Definitely, there must have been some edits.

Lalasticlala, have you seen a magnified image of the tapeworm that lives inside humans' bodies? What do you think?