71, No. 3, Sep., 1988 Use of Chemical Characters in Defining P... The fire ants, Solenopsis invicta and S. richteri, were accidentally imported into the United States in the first half of this century ...
For example, ants have a variety of biological defenses. Fire ants bite and sting with a venom called solenopsin. They can also survive floods by clumping together to float on the water’s surface.