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 ant is unknown. "Solenopsis daguerrei" is a reproductive parasite to red imported fire ant colonies. A large variety of pathogens and nematodes also infect red imported fire ants. Pathogens include "Myrmecomyces annellisae", "Mattesia" spp., "Steinernema" spp., a mermithid nematode, "Vairimorpha invictae", which can be transmitted via live larvae and pupae and dead adults and "Tetradonema solenopsis", which can be fatal to a large portion of a colony. Individuals infected by "Metarhizium anisopliae" tend to perform trophallaxis more frequently and have an enhanced preference to quinine, an alkaloid substance. Phorid flies with "Kneallhazia solenopsae" can serve as vectors in transmitting