Sometimes, people ask what we have copied from ants.

 

A kiss on the mouth.

 

We have thought for a long time that Romans from Antiquity had invented the kiss on the mouth many centuries before our time. But in fact, they only observed insects.

They understood that when they touched their labials, the ants created a generous act that consolidated their society. They never understood its complete signification but they tought that they had to reproduce this touching to retrieve this cohesion in the anthill.

 

To kiss on the mouth, it is miming a trophallaxie. But in a real trophallaxie, there is a regurgitation of the social crop and gift of food while in the human kiss, we only exchaange a bit of saliva.