Ant nest beetle secretions on their antennae and body allow them to interact with ant workers. It is believed that the beetles use an acoustic mechanism to successfully imitate the sounds of an ant queen thus permitting them access to the nest without alarming the ants. The defensive bombardier behaviour is never used against ants. Males of some species are attracted to lights during some parts of the season and are thought to disperse from one ant nest to another. Males are thought to be short-lived. These beetles feed on ant eggs, larvae and adults by piercing their mandibles into the abdomen or
Meat ant chambers where the population remains during the winter. In the upper areas of the colony, the galleries and shafts only account for 7–10% of nest space. For example, the galleries of excavated colonies occupy whereas the total volume is around . Overall, a nest may dwell extremely deep beneath the soil as excavated nests are as deep as . A diurnal species (active mainly during the day), the meat ant shows minimal interaction with nocturnal ant species when their territories overlap. The meat ant and other members of the "I. purpureus" species group are regarded as a dominant group of