How do ants breathe and sleep
Ants are strange creatures. Evolution plays tricks on almost every organism and makes them adapt to their surroundings and needs. We humans have a dedicated respiratory system comprising of lungs, diaphragm, windpipe, etc to suck air into our bodies and is then transported to all the cells through blood. This is however very different from what ants have in their tiny little bodies which doesn’t have enough room to accommodate a respiratory system, so they, or let’s say the evolution has devised a new and innovative way of respiration which not only saves space but also ensures 100% transportation of oxygen to all the cells their bodies.
The ants breath in oxygen through a series of holes along the sides of their bodies called – Spiracles. These Spiracles are connected with a network of tubes which further branch all over the ant’s body so that almost every cell is close to one of the tiny branches, exactly like blood vessels. The oxygen carried by these tubes reaches the cells which then absorbs it and release carbon dioxide as a waste into the tubes. The movement of the ant's body helps the air to circulate through the tubes and in and out of the spiracles. Most other insects breathe this way, too.
The other most profound rumor in the scientific world about the tiny crawling creatures, ants, is that they never sleep. So just to clarify on this fact I would like to tell you that it’s in fact a rumor because ants DO SLEEP! But not in the same sense as we understand sleep that is.
A research on the sleep patterns of the ants has revealed that ants have a cyclic pattern of resting period which each nest as a group observes and is about eight to ten minutes per twelve hours. That means two such resting period is observed by the ants in one whole day. However only one of the two resting periods is somewhat close to be called as a sleep. Mandible and antennae activity is at a much lower level (usually up to 65 per cent lower) than during the other rest period in one 24-hour period, indicating a much deeper "resting" phase.
