Originally, S. invicta was believed to be a red form of the black species S. saevissima richteri Forel. In 1972, Buren described the black imported fire ant to be a separate and distinct species, S. richteri Forel, and the RIFA was identified as S. invicta Buren (Hedges 1997).
Homologous recombination is a type of genetic recombination in which nucleotide (molecules which are joined make the structural units of RNA and DNA) sequences are exchanged between two similar or identical molecules of DNA.
When recombination occurs during meiosis, the cell's homologous chromosomes line up extremely close to one another. Then, the DNA strand within each chromosome breaks in the exact same location, leaving two free ends. Each end then crosses over into the other chromosome and forms a connection called a chiasma.