Activity-rest time budget of isolated group of workers in captivity of an Indian ant species Camponotus compressus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Formicinae)

Most of the research findings on Camponotus compressus regarding the activity-rest time budget plans were conducted either in the field or the laboratory-maintained colonies but in the present investigation, we designed the experiment to test the activity-rest time budget in the captivity (within formicarium). We selected three-time phases (morning, day and night) with one hour each during the 24 h and for each one-hour, 10 min intervals were considered for each time phase. We observed a clear-cut rhythm in activity-rest pattern for the ant species in the formicarium for the workers as a whole, and the major caste, in particular. Further, during daily observation for consecutively nine days our ants showed an initial arrhythmicity for the first three days followed by their rhythmic pattern of activity.