Як відпочивають робочі мурахи?

The popular claim of “8 minutes every 12 hours” misstates a study of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta. In a controlled laboratory colony, workers averaged about 253 brief sleep episodes per day, each lasting roughly 1.1 minutes—about 4.8 hours in total per 24 hours. This is not one eight-minute sleep period every half-day. The study found that about 80% of workers were active at any given time. However, the authors measured behavior and posture, not electrical brain activity; the study does not support the claim that worker ants’ brains remain “fairly active” during sleep. These findings apply to one species and a laboratory colony.