Do Ants Sleep? – Issue #71

Hello Explorer,
A friend asked me the simple question: Do ants sleep? This is a brilliant fundamental question, exactly the type of questions we are usually too scared to ask.
To answer this question we first have to look at what exactly is sleep. Sleep can be defined as a reversible, recurring state of reduced activity and responsiveness to external stimulants which is accompanied by a reduction in brain activity (or the central nervous system), an altered body position and a reduced breathing rate. To explain this simply it is when an animal or insect sits still in a relaxed position and is less responsive than usual to what is happening around them. Along with this they breathe slower and in insects this can often be seen in the abdomen that is not expanded and contracted on a continuous basis.
Do ants sleep? Yes, ants sleep. You will often see an ant inside a formicarium that is fast asleep. A sleeping ant can be identified by the body posture, usually the thorax and abdomen is flat up against the surface the ant is sitting on, legs held close to the body, and there will be no movement whatsoever. Furthermore, sleeping ants do not react to vibrations when you take off the cover of the nest to view the ants, instead they will just keep on sleeping. You can see ants sleeping in their formicarium at any time of the day or night, but the interesting part is that some ants are early birds and others are night owls. If you keep an eye on a few specific ants, you will find that the early birds among them are moving about and awake as soon as it starts to get light, but as soon as evening settles in they will go into the nest and sleep. The night owls are often found sleeping in the nest during the day and are awake at night. I do hypothesise, however, that this does not mean that some ants in a colony are diurnal and others are nocturnal, but rather that the ants just fulfil nest duties that need to be conducted at certain times of the day or night, and thus their sleeping habits have been altered accordingly.
Finding a sleeping ant in nature is much more difficult, because you can’t simply peer into the nest to look for sleeping ants. On a cool night you might be able to find an ant that didn’t make it back to the nest in time and decided to sleep outside the nest that evening. A few places where ants that sleep outside of the nest can be found are: under a leaf, on the tips of small twigs or grass, on the stem of plants, etc.

If you would like to send me a message with your answers, feel free to do so on Instagram @abugmanslife or via email to [email protected].

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