Most worker ants appeared inveterate idlers and loafers

Ants, like the bees, for a long time there was a special reputation workaholic working very hard feet. But this pattern has in common with the reality of more than cunning foxes or hedgehogs love to apples. According to a new study, the majority of working individuals in the anthill can stay idle.

Observations were made on small brown ants Temnothorax rugatulus, inhabit coniferous forests of North America. Like many other ants, their working individuals have particular specialty: some are busy in construction, others - exploration and production of food, others take care of the offspring. However, judging by the results of the biologists in Arizona, most working individuals "specialize" to doing nothing.

In the laboratory, the scientists looked at the behavior of a few hundred ants from five different colonies using colored tags to track their movements. Within two weeks, the camera takes an event six times a day, making the recording time of five minutes. The authors then analyzed the data, follow the movements (or lack of movement) in some individuals. So they found that among worker ants 71.9% does not occupied at least half the time, and 25.1% and did never managed to catch for some productive work. Only a small percentage of insects - 2.6% of working individuals - worked constantly, as it should be ants.

Previously, scientists had thought about the fact that the ants are not nearly as hard-working, as is commonly believed. This is attributed to the fact that the activity in the anthill can be distributed throughout the day between the plurality of insects, working "in shifts", due to the displacement of some of their circadian rhythms and daily activity. However, according to new data, lazy individuals remain permanently inactive. The authors suggest that the total laziness may be associated with age, individuals are too young to work or it's too old and "retired." However, there are other hypotheses, "lazy" individuals may be in standby, saving power in case of special need. Their behavior may have some other, yet unknown to us function.

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