Characterizing activity-rest rhythms of three related ant species, and examining the effect of social interaction on sleep in drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

The rotation of the earth about its axis and its revolution around the sun brings about daily and annual cycles in geophysical processes such as light and temperature. Almost all organisms on earth excluding those that live under constant aperiodic conditions (such as organisms living in caves, subterranean habitats and deep seas) need to be able to cope with these changes, and are therefore believed to have evolved mechanisms to synchronize their behavioural, physiological and biochemical processes to the periodically changing environment with the help of endogenous timekeeping mechanisms or clocks (Vaze & Sharma, 2013).