[2] Ectatomma parasiticum shares several life-history traits with other workerless inquiline ants: rarity, local distribution, variation in abundance, limited dispersal, intracolonial mating, queen miniaturization, morphological similarity with its host, and quasiexclusive production of sexuals.

Some of these parasitic traits, the polygynous population of the host, and the association between sibling species are arguments which may support the hypothesis of sympatric speciation.

However, recognition in ants is a multi-component system which encodes different types of information, but not independently of one another.

For example, it has been suggested that fertility signal interferes with the production or the perception of colony-specific cues in Camponotus floridanus.

In case of E. parasiticum, host worker attractiveness due to the queen-specific substance could, in return, increase the probability to be detected as carrying distinct recognition cues, and then to be attacked by the most discriminating host workers.