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.
