Ants in the City: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses

When Claudia De la Cruz spoke at the Southside Cultural Center a few weeks ago, she made the case that no matter which candidate wins, we will be marching in the streets and continuing to fight for collective liberation, just as much the day after the election as we have been leading up to it. Her resonating appeal was based on the reality that we don’t magically solve all our problems every four years, but rather, believing in the possibility of a better world and doing the work to make it happen are constitutive practices; like the genes critical for the growth and functioning of our cells, they must always be turned on, expressed, and active. But how do we do this? One clue can be found by watching the beautiful exchanges among ants, and one ant especially who stays active even as we slip from the warm breezes of fall into the chilling realities of winter. Winter ants, Prenolepis imparis, are colloquially named for an ability to be especially active in the cold. They are medium-sized, non-aggressive, hourglass-shaped, and have large eyes and long antennae.

One social behavior we can easily see winter ants engaging in is called trophallaxis, which involves the social exchange of fluids between individuals. In oral-oral stomodeal trophallaxis, larval and adult ants can pass ingested nutrients from their social stomachs (where foods may be stored prior to digestion) to each other by regurgitation. In practice, as they stand face to face during the exchange, antennae delicately resting on each other’s face, it looks like they’re kissing. In another common form of exchange, oral-anal proctodeal trophallaxis, one individual may consume the excretion of another. While Prenolepis haven’t been observed engaging in the latter form amongst themselves, it is common for them to tend to populations of aphids, offering protection in return for sipping on their sweet, discarded rewards. As the nectar from its various sources is collected by the colony, so too is it shared. Some individuals take on specialized nutrient storage roles as repletes, as their gasters stretch in size to contain large amounts of fat reserves, they could be mistaken for true honeypot ants. A pioneering ant biologist, Mary Talbot, who studied these ants in the early 1940s in the Midwest, observed that winter ant colonies foraged together, were not especially territorial with each other, and that the ”enormously swollen” repletes helped to provide energy for the growth of the colony’s brood in the early spring. Working like a winter ant replete, Food Not Bombs is an anarchist oriented, non-hierarchical, and self-organized group that gathers surplus food and donations during the week. They come together to serve those in need in our community, currently from 9:30 – 11:30am on Thursdays and 2 – 4pm on Sundays, near Burnside Park at Kennedy Plaza. Getting involved with mutual aid groups like this is a way we can all help to strengthen our communities and have an impact. If cooking and serving isn’t your thing, there are many other local organizations helping us non-ants care for each other, including community defense organizations like the Rhode Island John Brown Gun Club, groups organizing direct action like DARE, AMOR, and PSL, support for sex workers through O$A, for workers and renters with POWR, utility support through the George Wiley Center, RI Herbal Allies, and harm reduction with Weber Renew. While not meant to be a complete list of ways to get involved, we can all find ways to be more like the winter ants, if not exactly by distending our gasters or sharing in their affinity for proctodeal trophallaxis, at least by establishing local networks to practice and engage in mutual aid. •

Illustration by Maddy Bormes (PC ’27, @maddy_ makes). Follow Dr. Jane and her research lab on Instagram @antlabpvd or on the web lovetheants.org.