Word: invicta
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...third threat is a strain of fire ant called Solenopsis invicta that was discovered this year in northern Alabama, northern Mississippi and Oklahoma. Until now the insects, which first entered the U.S. five decades ago, had been confined to a warm-weather belt between Lubbock, Texas and Beaufort, N.C. Invicta has managed to make a different but equally menacing adaptation. The species has begun nesting in supercolonies, insect megalopolises that contain 10 million to 20 million ants. Says Clifford Lofgren of the USDA'S Agricultural Research Service: "Larger colonies eat crops such as soybeans, potatoes and other vegetables. They have...