Posted on 07/07/2015 6:26:39 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell
Good news for slackers! Turns out nature’s archetypal busybodies, worker ants, are lazy too.
Researchers have actually been aware of ants’ slacker habits for a while, but they didn’t know whether the sluggish members of the Temnothorax rugatulus species of western North America were inactive or rather just taking a break.
“It’s just the sort of a thing that anyone who’s ever worked on social insects has noticed: ‘Oh look, half of them are standing around doing nothing’,” says Daniel Charbonneau, co-author and researcher from the University of Arizona, to the New Scientist.
The new research published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociology finds that a “large proportion of a colony’s workers appear to spend their time completely inactive” and that this inactivity has a function beyond mere rest.
“A large proportion of a colony’s workers appear to spend their time completely inactive”
Charbonneau finds “perhaps the most surprising result of this study is that inactivity is highly repeatable and explains a large portion of inter-worker variation” meaning that inactivity is a behavioral state like any other, “on par with specialized tasks such as foraging, building, and brood care.”
Nearly half of all worker ants are “effectively ‘specializing’ on inactivity,” according to the new study.
But these ants might not just be slacking for funsies. Charbonneau posits to the New Scientist “these lazy ants could be older workers, who have slower metabolic rates because of their age, whose task is to store food.”
“The apparently ‘lazy’ ants could also be acting as a reserve fighting force, since raiding, including raiding for slaves, is quite common amongst such ants,” says Tomer Czaczkes, from the University of Regensburg in Germany to the New Scientist.
Charbonneau calls for more research into this specialization. In the meantime, please feel free to tell your boss that your slacking is actually an attempt to mimic the behavioral standards of the worker ant.
Ants have unionized.
Will the grasshopper file a defamation of character lawsuit?
Author omitted from credits.
Matt Kelemen
Are they sure it's half? I'll bet it's more like 47 percent.
Ok so that covers the black ants... what about the red ones?
Proverbs 6:6-8King James Version (KJV)
6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Mexican ants, here illegally and on welfare.
This is what happens when your ant nest turns from Red to Blue.
Har, har.....
Are they Greek?
Same with beavers. They really aren’t that busy. They slap the water with their tails every now and then, then it’s back to sleep.
+1
if EVERY ant is involved in transporting food, there are none available for defense.
Guard your supply lines.
Toss a spider in there and see how these ‘inactive’ ants behave
You mean the ones where half a dozen guys stand around and watch someone work?
You saw that too? Just like the ants.
I like work - I could watch it for hours.
>>>Ok so that covers the black ants... what about the red ones?<<<
The Red ones are Gingers, they’re just Nuts.
I know, I’m a Racist...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.