[5] They use venom to stun their prey and a complex trail-laying process to lead comrades to food sources.

Like most ants, Crematogaster species reproduce by partaking in nuptial flights, where the queen acquires the sperm used to fertilize every egg throughout her life.

These arolia are critical because cocktail ants are arboreal and often need to travel up trees to return to their nesting location.

Cocktail ants typically eat grasshoppers, termites, wasps, and other small insects.

[6] South American Crematogaster ants are also known to feed on egg sacs and spiderlings from the colonies of the social spider Anelosimus eximius.

[8] Additionally, the wasps typically have cycles that they follow, which can make locating and capturing them by the ants more difficult.

As a result, cocktail ants have evolved unique characteristics to detect the presence of prey.

They also have many anatomical features that are intermediate to small workers and the queen, including ovary size and composition, and patches.

The venom is created in a metapleural gland and usually consists of complex and simple phenols and carboxylic acids, some of which have known antibiotic properties.

[14] As with most eusocial insects, cocktail ants tend to form castes based on labor duties.

[15] Soldiers are typically larger with a more developed metapleural gland specialized for colony defence or food acquisition.

[19] Cocktail ants lay scent trails for many different reasons - communication, recruitment of workers, etc.

When laying a scent trail, the ants will typically lift their abdomen sharply upward then bend it forward.

The ants often find a food source requiring them to make multiple trips to the nest or shelter.

It can increase efficiency when a food source is located and needs to be brought back to the nest.