| Fire ant Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
| Tribe: | Solenopsidini |
| Genus: | Solenopsis Westwood, 1840 |
| Type species | |
| Solenopsis geminata Fabricius, 1804
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| Diversity[1] | |
| 201 species | |
Fire ants are several species of ants in the genus Solenopsis, which includes over 200 species. Solenopsis are stinging ants, and most of their common names reflect this, for example, ginger ants and tropical fire ants. Many of the names shared by this genus are often used interchangeably to refer to other species of ant, such as the term red ant, mostly because of their similar coloration despite not being in the genus Solenopsis. Both Myrmica rubra and Pogonomyrmex barbatus are common examples of non-Solenopsis ants being termed red ants.[2]
None of these common names apply to all species of Solenopsis nor exclusively to species of Solenopsis; for example, several species of weaver ants of the genus Oecophylla in Southeast Asia are colloquially called "fire ants" because of their similar coloration and painful bites, but the two genera are not closely related. Wasmannia auropunctata is another unrelated ant more commonly called the "little fire ant" due to its potent sting.[3]
- ^ Bolton, B. (2014). "Solenopsis". AntCat. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ Reins, Dusty. "Species: Pogonomyrmex barbatus - Red Harvester Ant". Wildcat Bluff Nature Center. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
- ^ "Wasmannia auropunctata". Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR). Retrieved 9 July 2015.