Odontomachus rixosus, belongs to the genus Odontomachus, subfamily of Ponerinae and tribe Ponerini (Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014) is a forest species that widely distributed throughout tropical Asia and can be found in the forest of Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. In Malaysia, this species has been found inhabits primary, secondary forests and also has been recorded to be present at plantations adjacent to forested areas in lowlands. It typically nests and forage under leaf litter, in the soil near the base of living trees, and under rotten logs and stumps.

The name Odontomachus derived from the Ancient Greek which literal meaning of odonto is “tooth” and machus means “thrower” due to the presence of its prominent mandibles. The elongated mandible is massive and lies nearly parallel to the head when fully closed and usually held open to about 180° in ready position. The genus Odontomachus is known as trap-jaw ants due to their predatory mandible strike. The powerful and rapid mandible strike has been recorded to be the fastest self-powered predatory strike in the animal kingdom at 35 to 64 meters per second (Gronenberg, 1995). The ants may strike prey items multiple times using their mandible to break up large items into more manageable fragments.