Indigo Ly Nelson-Frey | 2026 I.S. Symposium
Name: Indigo Ly Nelson-Frey
Title: Plants & Ants: A Biological Study of Myrmecochory in Dicentra cucullaria and a Literary Study of the Rhizome & the Hive
Majors: Biology; English
Advisors: Jennifer Ison, Daimys GarcÃa
This project follows plants and ants from biology to literary theory. The biology chapter examines the ant-mediated seed dispersal (myrmecochory) of Dicentra cucullaria, a spring ephemeral wildflower. Specifically, I measured seed removal and identified seed-dispersing ants. Seed removal success decreased significantly over the course of D. cucullaria’s fruiting period. This indicates that its seeds lost relative attractiveness to seed dispersers over time, possibly due to seed deterioration, ant satiation, and/or the emergence of alternative food sources. The presence of D. cucullaria plants at sites had no impact on seed removal. The most abundant seed-dispersing ant species was Aphaenogaster picea, a dominant seed disperser in eastern North America. The English chapter examines plants and ants in critical theory through the figures of the rhizome and the hive. More exactly, I identify the coloniality lurking in representations of the rhizome and the ant hive in poststructuralist theory. I argue that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s philosophical rhizome and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of sexual difference via ants both fall back into the universalizing, colonial, humanist logics they attempt to resist. I present Édouard Glissant’s ‘Poetics of Relation’ and Octavia Butler’s alien Communities as alternatives which better embody the decolonial, deconstructive aims of poststructuralist theory. Together, these chapters highlight the breadth of meaning and knowledge which can be gleaned from a given subject matter if considered from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Posted in Symposium 2026 on May 1, 2026.
