Mated workers have replaced the queen as the functional egg-layers in several species of ponerine ants.

In such queenless species, the reproductive status of workers can only be determined through ovarian dissections.

[citation needed] Ponerinae are most easily identified from other subfamilies by possessing a single-segmented petiole and the gaster usually being constricted between the first and second segments.

[3] Odontomachus lack this constriction, but these can be identified from their elongate, straight mandibles attached close together along the front margin of the head and with teeth only at the mandible tips.

[3] These ants typically nest in soil, forest litter, or rotting logs, and are predacious.