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| This is an army ant, Labidus coecus (Latreille). |
Identification: These common army ants are polymorphic ants that range in size from small to medium. This species is brown-red to light brown. Major workers have an enlarged head and robust mandibles, whereas the smaller workers have a typical army ant form. Females lack wings, and reproductive females never go on nuptial flights. The males look similar to hairy wasps.
Biology: Like the more-famous South American Ection army ant species, Labidus coecus is a major predator of insects and other arthropods. Though it lives underground, it occasionally can be found above the ground looking for food. Army ants form large colonies with thousands of workers; nest are semi-temporary and often found underground, under stones, rocks or in decaying logs. Army ants have also been collected from moist soil under leaf litter, twigs and vegetative detritus in parts of Texas. In Louisiana, this species appears to prefer pine-dominated ecosystems such as longleaf-pine savannas. It has been collected primarily from the northwest mixed-pine hardwood and the west gulf-coastal plain longleaf-pine forest ecoregions as well as once from the east gulf-costal plain longleaf-pine forest ecoregion.
Army ants present little economic importance as a pest, and these ants are beneficial as a predator of pest insects. The workers are rarely encountered, but the winged males can often be seen around lights during their flight period (February to May).