An extraordinary photograph of a rice weevil perched on a single grain of rice has triumphed in the 2025 Nikon Small World photomicrography competition, offering important insights into the characteristics and actions of this well-recognized agricultural nuisance. The photograph was captured by Zhang You from Yunnan, China. Another of You’s images secured the 15th position in the contest this year.
“Delving into entomology is rewarding: grasping the behaviors of insects and perfecting the art of lighting,” You remarked in a statement. “A remarkable piece merges artistic talent with scientific precision, encapsulating the essence, vitality, and spirit of these beings.”
Creating his victorious image also involved a stroke of luck. “I had previously seen rice weevils in grains, but had never encountered one with its wings unfolded,” You explained. “This specimen was fortuitously preserved on a windowsill, potentially in its last effort to flee. Its minuscule size complicates the manual preparation of spread-wing specimens, making this encounter both coincidental and uplifting.”
Nikon’s yearly competition began in 1974 “to highlight the beauty and intricacy of objects observed through the light microscope.” Photomicrography entails the process of attaching a camera to a microscope (whether optical or electron) to enable users to capture images of objects at extremely high resolutions. British physiologist Richard Hill Norris was among the pioneers to employ it in his blood cell studies in 1850, and this method has increasingly gained recognition as a form of art since the 1970s. Numerous innovative technological developments have occurred in the subsequent decades, especially with the introduction of digital imaging techniques.
