Worker Ants, Army Ants—and Lazy Ants?
—Jay Sailors
Most people think of ants as diligent workers, constantly collecting food and building nests. Researchers have made a huge discovery about these tiny creatures: an average of 40 percent of ants in a colony are lazy layabouts.
"They really just sit there," says Daniel Charbonneau, a researcher from the University of Arizona. Charbonneau and his team made this discovery by painting the ants, putting four tiny dots of colored paint on each one in order to identify it. Then, using video recordings, they tracked the ants' movements over time.
But why were so many ants idle? Charbonneau found out by removing 20 percent of the most active workers from their colony. Within a week, the inactive workers replaced the ones that were lost. Charbonneau believes that it's the youngest ants that remain inactive in the nest, since they are the most vulnerable. When the colony loses workers, these young ants replace them.
Charbonneau's work shows that even in studying the simplest creatures, there's always more to learn. Ants may sometimes be lazy, but science never sleeps.
四成螞蟻都在裝忙？
大多數人都認為螞蟻是很勤勞的工人，持續不斷地在收集食物和築巢。關於這些小生物，研究人員有一個重大的發現︰在一群螞蟻中，平均有四成都是懶惰蟲。
美國亞利桑那大學研究人員丹尼爾．夏博諾說︰「牠們就真的只是坐在那裡。」。夏博諾和他的團隊透過在每一隻螞蟻身上用顏料塗上四個小點來做辨識，而有了這項發現。然後，他們用錄影紀錄來追?螞蟻一段時間的活動情況。
但為什麼有這麼多螞蟻無所事事呢？夏博諾從蟻穴中移除最活躍的兩成工蟻後有了發現。在一週內，無所作為的工蟻就會取代那些失蹤的螞蟻。夏博諾認為在蟻窩中就是年紀最小的螞蟻會維持無作為狀態，因為牠們最脆弱。蟻穴失去工蟻時，這些幼蟻就會取代牠們。
夏博諾的研究成果顯示即使是研究最簡單的生物，總是會有很多值得學習之處。螞蟻或許有時懶惰，但科學永不休眠。
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