An entomologist critiques ant emojis

Behind the CurlicueCal handle is a Doctor in Entomology specialized in ant behaviour. Recently, CurlicueCal posted ratings of various ant emojis on her Tumblr page: Microsoft’s, Apple’s, Facebook’s, Twitter’s and others. From a myrmecological point of view, the worst emoji is Mozilla’s, since it’s in fact a termite. Among the better ones are Facebook’s, described as “elegant”, and Messenger’s: “This ant is a bold and challenging mixture of photorealism and caricature.” But head and shoulders above its peers is Apple’s ant, with a score of 11 out of 10. Mind you, CurlicueCal’ assessment is not consensual.

“This makes me angry”, said Stephane De Greef, a Belgian environmental engineer, when iOS 11.2. was launched. “Why fix it if it ain’t broken? The old one [the iOS 11.1 ant] was a cute Lasius-kinda ant and now we have this rounding monstruosity with no petiole and widening fluffy legs?” asks De Greef, who photographs ants in nature. “It honestly looks more like a spider than an ant”, said Joanie King, an entomologist at A&M University in Texas specialized in the social behaviour of ants. As for us, we kind of like Google’s ant for its surprised look, but we’re no entomologists.

⇨ CurlicueCal, “An entomologist rates ant emojis.”

⇨ Quartzy, “Biologists are bugged about the ant emoji.”

⇨ The Daily Ant, “New iOS ant emoji enrages entomologist.”