What do ant queens dream about?

[Magical Realist]

"Which animals actually sleep? Many people seem to think sleep is restricted to vertebrates such as lizards, birds and primates. But actually, insects sleep as well!

Ants, being insects, are very interesting for studying sleeping behaviour, as they live underground. Most ants get exposed to sunlight only very irregularly, so a sleeping rythm based on a photo period such as we do (e.g. sleeping while it’s dark, being awake while it’s light), would not be very useful. Because of their social and subterranean lifestyle, one might expect that sleep periods of ants are more dependent on the tasks at hand than on light/dark periods.

This is indeed what Deby Cassill and collaborators found. Queens of the fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) have an average of 92 sleep periods per day, lasting for about 6 minutes each (for a total of 9.4h of sleep per day). Workers are very different from this, as they had 253 sleep episodes on average per day, each lasting about 1 minute, for a total of 4.8h sleep per day, meaning they sleep more often, but less long. Furthermore, at any time of the day, about 80% of the working force was actually working instead of sleeping…an efficient workforce indeed!

One phase of human sleep is called REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. This is the phase where we ‘blink’ our eyes often, and it’s the phase where our dreams are the most vivid (the dreams you actually remember are had during this sleep phase). Funny thing is that ant queens show a similar behaviour when they’re fast asleep. Instead of their eyes, they twitch their antennae, resulting in so called ‘Rapid Antennal Movement’ (RAM) sleep.

This begs the question…what do ants dream about?"===https://antyscience.wordpress.com/2013/0...nt-page-1/

[C C]

Apologies To Z For Alterations: "Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a larva, being fed by workers. I was conscious only of my non-reproductive and carefree life as a larva, unaware that I was a queen ant. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably my bloated, egg-filled self again. Now I do not know whether I was then an ant dreaming I was a larva, or whether I am now a larva, dreaming I am an ant. Between an ant and a larva there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things." --Master Zhuang

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?: "Ants. They don't feel period. [...] We're not born; we don't grow up; instead of dying from illness or old age we wear out like ants. Ants again; that's what we are. Not you; I mean me. Chitinous reflex-machines who aren't really alive." --Rachael (PKD)

- - - - - - -

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Baty," Rick said, and shot her. Roy Baty, in the other room, let out a cry of anguish.

"Okay, you loved her," Rick said. "And I loved Rachael. And the special loved the other Rachael."

He shot Roy Baty; the big man's corpse lashed about, toppled like an overstacked collection of separate, brittle entities; it smashed into the kitchen table and carried dishes and flatware down with it. Reflex circuits in the corpse made it twitch and flutter, but it had died; Rick ignored it, not seeing it and not seeing that of Irmgard Baty by the front door. I got the last one, Rick realized. Six today; almost a record. And now it's over and I can go home, back to Iran and the goat. And we'll have enough money, for once.

[...] "God, what a marathon assignment," Rick said. "Once I began on it there wasn't any way for me to stop; it kept carrying me along, until finally I got to the Batys, and then suddenly I didn't have anything to do. And that — " He hesitated, evidently amazed at what he had begun to say. "That part was worse," he said. "After I finished. I couldn't stop because there would be nothing left after I stopped. You were right this morning when you said I'm nothing but a crude cop with crude cop hands."

"I don't feel that any more," Iran said. "I'm just damn glad to have you come back home where you ought to be." She kissed him and that seemed to please him; his face lit up, almost as much as before — before she had shown him that the toad was electric.

"Do you think I did wrong?" he asked. "What I did today?

"No."

"Mercer said it was wrong but I should do it anyhow. Really weird. Sometimes it's better to do something wrong than right."

"It's the curse on us," Iran said. "That Mercer talks about. [...] they told him he couldn't [...] bring things back [...] again. So now all he can do is move along with life, going where it goes, to death. [...]"

"Yes," he said wanly.

"Will you go to bed now? If I set the mood organ to a 670 setting?"

"What does that bring about?" he asked.

"Long deserved peace," Iran said.

He got to his feet, stood painfully, his face drowsy and confused, as if a legion of battles had ebbed and advanced there, over many years. And then, by degrees, he progressed along the route to the bedroom. "Okay," he said. "Long deserved peace." he stretched out on the bed, dust sifting from his clothes and hair onto the white sheets.

No need to turn on the mood organ, Iran realized as she pressed the button which made the windows of the bedroom opaque. The gray light of day disappeared. On the bed Rick, after a moment, slept. She stayed there for a time, keeping him in sight to be sure he wouldn't wake up, wouldn't spring to a sitting position in fear as he sometimes did at night. And then, presently, she returned to the kitchen, reseated herself at the kitchen table.

Next to her the electric toad flopped and rustled in its box; she wondered what it "ate," and what repairs on it would run. Artificial flies, she decided. Opening the phone book she looked in the yellow paces under animal accessories, electric; she dialed and when the saleswoman answered, said, "I'd like to order one pound of artificial flies that really fly around and buzz, please...."

[Magical Realist]

Ant queen on her dream: "I was attending Queen's college in my 2nd semester and I suddenly realized my antennae were missing. O..M..G! I began crawling thru the halls looking for them while all the other queens snickered and pointed at me. So embarrassing!"

[Magical Realist]

Here's a sad fact: when an ant is taken from the hive and forced to live alone, his lifespan is cut 91%. Normally ants eat the predigested regurgitated food of fellow ants. But living alone, the ant will only store up food without ever eating it. The ant dies of starvation even though he has plenty of food.