But maybe they’re soldiers. I wonder if the scientist tried starting a fight with two colonies to see how the lazy ants reacted?

Or, maybe they’re some sort of outcasts, untouchables, living ghosts, ants that all other ants must pretend do not exist.

Maybe the idle ants together own the colony, maybe even own the busy ants.

Maybe there’s an unemployment problem in the ant world, and these ants would work if there was enough work to be worth going off unemployment.

Maybe there’s a strike. Scientists should check back in a few weeks.

Or, you know, maybe they’re poets, singers, actors, all the things we might have a hard time identifying from our perspective. But to an ant, they’re acting (‘Charley’s Ant’?), they’re reciting things like ‘one more leaf ten times my size, and all for a look from my true one’s eyes’, they walk with a certain fascinating rolling motion between the thorax and the abdomen.

Meanwhile, Prof. Eisuke Hasegawa is my kind of guy. He’s also done research on the mating frequency of hornets (here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1343-8786.2003.00018.x/abs/ )and Sympatric Speciation and Evolution of Social Parasitism (see here: http://neco.biology.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~qshinka/program-e/2D1.html ). Prof. Hasegawa, if you read this, send me a mail, I’m your biggest fan.