Banded sugar ant 20 cm (8 in) in diameter and usually funnel-shaped and ephemeral. Mounds are not constructed in undisturbed regions where land degradation has not occurred. Instead, the entrance of a nest consists of a smooth-walled vertical shaft that is in diameter. Chambers in the nest have a similar appearance to the nest entrance (shaft-like walls), and the floors within the chambers are typically in length with an arched roof that is in height. Excavated meat ant nests show that banded sugar ants will also inhabit them. Banded sugar ants are the dominant group of nocturnal ants in their range. Workers are
Ant mimicry call of ants so they can integrate themselves into the nest. In "A. dentatis" the tubercles release the mimicking pheromone which elicits "A. caprensis" to care for the mimics as they would their own brood. In these relationships worker ants give the same preference to the Lycaenid's as they do to their own brood, demonstrating that chemical signals produced by the mimic are indistinguishable to the ant. This process is also used by larvae of the European Lycaenid species "Phengaris rebeli" which live in the nests of "Myrmica" ants and feed on their ant brood. Wasmannian mimicry occurs when two