Do ants work all the time and do they ever sleep?
Ants do seem to work very hard, but they also rest and sleep. The reason why you think they are always working is because there are always ants working at every hour. All of the workers look the same, so you might think they are working 24 hours a day. –Ant and UMI In some ant species sleeping like behavior have been observed e.g. some workers of a colony Australian Carpenter Ants (Camponotus perthiana) laying around in a so-called sleeping position. When they are “awakened”, they show a sluggishly moving. –E.O. Wilson However, this behavior can also be seen as this: As workers have to respond to the colony needs it could also be a reducing of resources. It means that they have nothing to do and have to reduce the need of food, so they fall in a sleep-like idleness with reduced biological functions. When the colony needs them again, they start acting normal with a side effect — they need time to get to normal functioning (resulting in a sluggish movement). –Jinei Other comments fro
