Queen fire ants fall into relatively long, deep sleeps and nap for an average of nine hours every day. By contrast, workers sleep just half as much and get to rest by taking hundreds of short power naps. On average, a single worker ant takes 250 naps each day, with each one lasting just over a minute. That equates to 4 hours and 48 minutes of sleep a day. This means that 80 per cent of the workforce is awake and active at any one time. The large number and short naps by workers means that jobs in the nest never go unattended. When work is slow, workers sleep more.
On average, each queen falls asleep 90 times a day, sleeping for just over 6 minutes at a time. That equates to over nine hours of sleep each day. Amazingly, queens can live six years before they die of old age. Whereas workers live six months to a year and then die of old age or some accident during foraging. The queens of other ant species can live even longer, reaching up to 45 years. (BBC)
