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This is the second time that I hear about the sleeping behavior of ants. The first time was in the book "The Ants" from Hölldobler and Wilson. In it were some observations Hölldobler made on a species of Camponotus (I did forget which one, have to look it up one day.). It was said that a more elaborated article was in preparation. But ..... it was never published. So I'm very glad to see that someone has done some research on the sleeping behavior of an ant and published about it. And, as bonus, it is about Solenopsis invicta. The BBC coverage about the research is very promising (and a photograph from Myrmecos in it!) and I hope I find somewhere a copy of it. Than I have something to do the next few days .....

I still have to read the article (got a copy of a member of another board.), so I can't say if that age is mentioned in that article. But I can say this:

The oldest age for an ant queen on record is a queen of Lasius niger that reached the age of 28 and 3/4 of years. It was captured on landing on the ground after her nuptial fligth and layed eggs untill she died so many years later. No other direct observations have been maid about ants that became so old or older!

Some nests of monogynous Pogonomyrmex species have been reported in nature for 30 years or more but nobody knows if they still had the original queens or some replacement-queens. So, these observations are in doubth. They can count for ages of nests but not for queens.

So, the oldest ant queen known for sure is the Lasius niger queen mentioned earlier. It is also the oldest age known for an insect .....

Yes, thank you for the correction. It is indeed the oldest known age for an adult insect.

The article is, for me, a big disappointment. They hope the article will be the basis for a field of sleep-research in ants but I think it will be best to forget it. And yes, they say ant queens can become 45 years. The reference they give is "The Ants" from Hölldobler and Wilson. In that book I can't find any mention of a queen of 45 years old but the age I gave for the Lasius niger queen. Neither do they mention Hölldobler's Camponotus sleep account in it (that, I think, would be better if H. publishes it in full in an article!).

P.S. The phenomenon of RAM sleep comes from the study of other insects. The most important insects studied are bees, flies and cockroaches.