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
Black imported fire ant Black imported fire ant The black imported fire ant ("Solenopsis richteri"), or simply BIFA, is a species of ant in the genus "Solenopsis" (fire ants). It was long thought to either be a subspecies or color variation of "Solenopsis invicta" (red imported fire ant; RIFA), but is now recognized as its own species with a demonstratively different range and living habits. BIFA seem to be more tolerant of cold and a less dominant species than RIFA. The species is native to South America, but has been introduced to North America. In the United States, the official assessment is that BIFA