The worker ants are dark glossy black, and 3–5 mm long. The queens are 9 mm long, glossy black color, and with slight brown stripes on her abdomen. After a queen mates, she removes her wings and eats her wing muscles as food over the winter. The male ants are 3.5–4.5 mm long and are only produced by queens for mating. They have a dark glossy body, which is a different shape from the workers, and look like a wasp. They have delicate wings which stand out from the rest of the body. 