Its common name refers to the ant's liking for sugar and sweet food, as well as the distinctive orange-brown band that wraps around its gaster.

Mainly nocturnal, banded sugar ants prefer a mesic habitat, and are commonly found in forests and woodlands.

The banded sugar ant was first described by German entomologist Wilhelm Ferdinand Erichson, who named it Formica consobrina in 1842.

The holotype specimen is a queen collected from Tasmania, which is now housed in the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.

[4] In 1933, American entomologist William Morton Wheeler described some subspecies and variants of the banded sugar ant.

[10] Banded sugar ants appear in different forms, varying from 4 to 16 millimetres (0.2 to 0.6 in) in length, making them a large species.

The two castes can be identified easily, due to the workers being smaller and more slender, while the soldiers are larger and more robust.

Banded sugar ants come in a large variety of colours, possibly due to ecological rather than genetic influences.

The thorax is longer than its total width and slightly compressed, and the gaster is covered with tiny black dots.

[8][17] In South Australia, it is a common household pest in Adelaide, and populations are mostly found in the south-east of the state while the species is absent in the north-west.

[18] These ants are found in urban areas, eucalypt forests, dry sclerophyll woodland, grasslands and heaths, preferring a mesic habitat.

[10][12][19][20] In the drier regions of Australia, the banded sugar ant is absent and is usually replaced by Camponotus nigriceps.

[19] Nests are found in a variety of sites, including holes in wood, roots of plants, twigs of trees and shrubs, between rocks, in the soil, and under paving stones.

[21][22] Sometimes, banded sugar ant colonies form small mounds, which are less than 20 cm (7.9 in) in diameter and usually funnel-shaped and ephemeral.

Workers are mostly encountered at dusk when they are foraging for food on marked trails or on Casuarina and Eucalyptus trees.

[31] When provoked, an individual banded sugar ant will lift up its abdomen and use its large mandibles to fend off an attacker.

Banded sugar ants also tend the larvae of the southern purple azure butterfly (Ogyris genoveva).

[43] They may be seen at night foraging under lights in urban areas for arthropod prey, such as termites and the southern cattle tick (Rhipicephalus microplus).

[48] Banded sugar ants have been found in the feces of the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus),[49] and non-passerine birds are known to predate them.

[50] The blackish blindsnake (Ramphotyphlops nigrescens) follows trails laid by banded sugar ants, possibly to locate them as potential prey.

[55][56] Not much is known about their nuptial flight, although virgin queens and males (alates) were observed mating in South Australia in January; and in early December in Southeast Queensland (2017).

[8] This hints that banded sugar ants will mate during mid-summer, and colony foundation occurs at this time.

Ideal conditions for nuptial flight is on warm days during the afternoon at temperatures of 20–25 °C (68–77 °F), which is when the alates begin to swarm.

However, the larger soldiers can inflict a painful bite with their powerful jaws, and the formic acid they spray is corrosive to human skin.