In her book of ant poetry, Sawako Nakayasu, an artist and professor at Brown University, describes keeping ants close to her heart, from both metaphorical and literal perspectives. Ants have been close to my heart for years, and as we move through women’s history month, we wanted to highlight the work and legacies of some of our favorite scientists studying ants in cities across the country. Ioulia Bespalova is a myrmecologist who is always fascinated with observing ant behavior, and who has been working with us at Providence College as a postdoctoral scholar. Her first research paper included the most beautiful and intricately detailed hand-drawn color illustrations of pill-millipedes, and her most recent one describes the evolution of female weapons in ant queens. A biology graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Bespalova previously did thermophysiology research at Salve Regina University with Heather Axen, studied hybridizing ants with Sarah Cahan at the University of Vermont, and explored foraging ecology with Diane Wiernasz at the University of Houston. Her PhD research focused on seed choice in harvester ants and her graduate advisor Jennifer Fewell wrote that, “Ioulia is one of the most creative scientific thinkers I have known… she thinks outside the box and offers new perspectives that turn research challenges into research explorations.” Recently, we’ve worked on ant social network analysis and on measuring ant metabolic rates, work that’s part of an effort to understand ant colonies as complex adaptive systems and physiologically integrated superorganisms. To a large part, we’ve inherited this research ambition and transdisciplinary approach, thanks to the mentorship of Jennifer Fewell and contributions from many generations of artists and myrmecologists before us.
A golden colored seed harvesting ant in our area, Aphaenogaster treatae, is one of three ants named for Mary Treat (1830-1923). A naturalist and entomologist, Mary described observations of ants from her backyard and the New Jersey pine barrens that inspired Charles Darwin and August Forel and which were published in Harper’s Monthly. Following those observations, Mary Talbot (1903-1990), was a prolific author of papers on the detailed natural history of ants. In one of my all-time favorite papers, Talbot described a survey of the seventy species of ants of the greater Chicagoland region. Working from the University of Chicago in the 1930s, the paper combines quantitative precision with a behaviorist’s eye, a botanist’s awareness of the environment, and controlled experimental manipulations to propose inferences about the interactions between ecology, physiology, and climate that were decades ahead of their time.
When we sat down to think about the women who’ve been inspiring leaders for us in myrmecology, we listed so many who’ve written famous papers and who’ve led huge research labs. Corrie Moreau sent me to Providence with the charge to study the ants here, and I’ve been privileged to be joined in this effort by working with Rachael Bonoan, Taylor Hart, Kira Stillwell, Virgina Thomas, Ioulia Bespalova, and dozens of undergraduate students in the lab. One of those students, Kaylee Mulligan (Providence College ’25) spent the last year measuring the thermal sensitivity of ant colonies to test a hypothesis about how social evolution might challenge basic biochemistry for control of ant metabolic rates. Speaking of Ioulia as her research mentor, and remarkably appropriate for reflecting on so many generations of women in myrmecology, Kaylee wrote, “her relentless determination is proof that there is always a way, so long as you are willing to put the effort into discovering it.” •
Follow Dr. Jane and her research lab on Instagram @ antlabpvd or on the web www.lovetheants.org.
