Southern fire ant

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Southern fire ant

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Genus:	Solenopsis
Species:	S. xyloni

Binomial name

Solenopsis xyloni
McCook, 1879

The Southern fire ant, Solenopsis xyloni, is a stinging fire ant native to southern parts of the United States. Its behavior is similar to the red imported fire ant (S. invicta), although its sting is less painful. Its main source of food is honeydew collected from aphids and other insects.

The Southern fire ant shares its range (the area it inhabits) with the red imported fire ant (S. invicta), the golden fire ant (S. aurea) and S. amblychila. The Southern fire ant has the widest distribution of these, occurring from the Carolinas to Georgia through lowland Tennessee and south-central Kansas to California.

The scientific name comes from the Greek: Solenopsis means pipe-faced and xyloni means of-wood. This is unusual, however, because the Southern fire ant does not eat or inhabit bark or fallen timber.