Fire ant queens. Even if only one queen survives, within a month or so, the colony can expand to thousands of individuals. Some colonies may be polygynous (having multiple queens per nest). Fire ants are resilient and can survive floods. During Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017, clumps of fire ants, known as rafts, were seen clumped together on the surface of the water. Each clump had as many as 100,000 individual ants, which formed a temporary structure until finding a new permanent home. Fire ant queens, the reproductive females in their colony, also are generally the largest. Their primary function is
Red imported fire ant in the red imported fire ant. As well as that, "S. richteri" workers are 15% larger than red imported fire ant workers, are blackish-brown, and have a yellow stripe on the dorsal side of the gaster. Eggs are tiny and oval-shaped, remaining the same size for around a week. After one week, the egg assumes the shape of an embryo and forms as a larva when the egg shell is removed. Larvae measure . They show a similar appearance to "S. geminata" larvae, but they can be distinguished by the integument with spinules on top of the dorsal portion of