L. acervorum is vastly distributed across the globe, most commonly found in the coniferous forests of Central, Western and Northern Europe.

Leptothorax acervorum was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1793 in his publication Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta.

Using DNA analysis, the divergence date estimated for clades within the Formicidae imply that most ant subfamilies originate in the late Cretaceous period.

[4] L. acervorum are small myrmicine ants with distinct propodeal spines and have three-segmented antennal clubs.

[4] Based on a taxonomy experiment performed by Dekoninck, the entire body of L. acervorum is light brown in color and is covered with erect hairs.

The exoskeleton provides a protecting casing of the body, which can be divided into 3 segments: the head, mesosoma, and metasoma.

[1][6] The workers have reddish to brownish yellow body colour with the head, antennal club and dorsal surface being darker.

[4] Bergmann's rule establishes that among endothermic animals of the same species, body size increases with latitude.

Leptothorax acervorum might extend their survival time in areas with long winters and unpredictable climate by storing more reserves.

[1] Leptothorax acervorum are commonly found in dry coniferous forests, where they nest in small rotting branches, tree stumps, and under bark.

Patchy distribution is positively correlated with an increase in latitude because, in the case that a queen leaves its colony due to a resource deficit, there is a low possibility that it will find and thereby compete with another one.

[10] The ideal environment for this species consists of temperate or subtropical biomes, in which resources are readily available for survival and success of the colony.

As the latitude of the colonies' expanded outward, the mean body size of each individual worker ant increased as well.

In accordance with this principle, Heinze et al. suggest that larger body size in L. acervorum from boreal habitats could be a result of selection for increased fasting endurance.

In other words, in colder environments, the ants evolved larger body size in response to the adaptation of increased fasting endurance under starvation conditions, or peripheral habitats with a lack of resources.

[13] Newly eclosed queens mate with unrelated males near the natal nest and then return to it, where they are readopted.

It is possible that direct confrontation would increase risk of injury for the egg-laying queen, thereby making egg defense too costly.

[13] Trivers and Hare (1976) proposed that the population-level sex-investment ratio equals the relatedness asymmetry, so there can be conflict between workers and queens over sex allocation.

However, this relatedness estimate for nest mate workers in monogynous colonies was distinctly lower than the expected 0.75 value for full siblings.

[20] Seasonal fluctuations of queen numbers may explain why relatedness estimates for workers in monogamous colonies are lower than expected.

The seasons shape the composition of the colony—young queens are regularly adopted in their natal colonies after mating in late summer.

[20] In a study conducted in Spain, L. acervorum became active in the incubators about one or two hours after the morning rise in temperature.

When the temperature reached 25 °C, the winged females left the nest chambers and climbed the walls of the flight cage to perform a stationary sexual calling behavior.