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 the burning sensation caused by its sting. Alternative names include: the "fire ant", "red ant" or "tramp ant". In Brazil, locals call the ant "toicinhera", which derives from the Portuguese word "toicinho" (pork fat). The red imported fire ant was first described by Swiss entomologist Felix Santschi in a 1916 journal article published by "Physis". Originally named "Solenopsis saevissima wagneri" from a syntype worker collected from Santiago del Estero, Argentina, Santschi believed the ant was a variant of "S. saevissima"; the specific epithet, "wagneri", derives from the surname of E.R. Wagner, who collected the first specimens. The type material is