- We tend to think of ant colonies
as a finely turned eusocial system,
but sometimes there's an ant.
Sometimes there's an ant.
Yes a team of the University
of Arizona Entomologist
recently took note
of rather lazy members of the ant species
temnothorax rugatulus.
Members of the colony who spend their time
in constant levels of inactivity
that border on orthodox dude-ism.
We're not just talking
about one lazy dude here,
but roughly half of a
250 member ant colony.
So in studies published this month
in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
and The Journal of Bioeconomics,
authors Daniel Charbonneau
and Anna Dornhaus
investigated the mystery.
It was a tantalizing mystery
because these weren't
parasite addled workers,
there wasn't some manner of
colony collapse going on here.
They weren't resting,
or working on a different shift,
or just passing on communication.
Rather,
laziness just seemed their
specialized behavior.
The researchers explored
several different theories
as to how they fit into the system.
First up,
there's the reserve worker theory.
Think of fire fighters
lounging around the station
just waiting for an alarm.
The ant colony has to deal
with fluctuating food levels,
worker loses,
and the occasional full blown invasion,
so it pays to have a reserve
of fresh workers on call.
Then there's the response
threshold theory.
Perhaps these ants just
have higher thresholds
for participating in work.
In the same way that different cat owners
have different thresholds
for cleaning up littler box filth.
You can't anthropomorphize
the situation too much though.
Another idea called
the refrigerator theory
actually shows a lot of promise.
It hinges on the fact
that many ant species
boast specialized stomachs called crops.
They go out into the wild,
they harvest the food,
and they bring it back in their crops
to share with everyone
through a little communal regurgitation.
So they might just be
the living food stores.
Finally, there is a good chance
they're just designated breeders.
Cooking up new generation of workers
for the colony.
In an unpublished study
Charbonneau found the ovaries of lazy ants
were actually more developed.
It's another area that
requires additional study,
and even if this theory holds true
the resulting eggs could be ear marked
for colonial feasting
rather than the nursery.
Again,
it never pays
to over humanize the ant colony.
Whatever the reason,
the lazy ant seems to
play a role in the colony.
That laziness might be an essential part
of any emergent complex system.
Sometimes there's an ant.
Well, she's the ant
for her time and place.
She fits right in.
So are you looking for more weird wonders
from the scientific world?
if so, be sure to check in
over at
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every day.
