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 misidentified as well. In India, surveyed ants in Sattur Taluk, India listed the red imported fire ant there in high populations; meanwhile, no reports of the ant were made outside the surveyed area. In 2016, scientists state that despite no presence of the ant in India, the red imported fire ant will more than likely find suitable habitats within India's ecosystem if given the opportunity. The reports in the Philippines most likely misidentified collected material as the red imported fire ant, as no populations have been found there. It was discovered in Hong Kong and mainland China in 2004, where