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To study the microbial diversity in the digestive tract of the Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA), the digestive tract will be removed to conduct DNA extractions. The DNA extracts will be sent to a sequencing facility to obtain high-throughput bacterial ribosomal 16S amplicon data. The DNA will then be analyzed with QIIME and R software, in order to better compare species richness and relative abundance of bacterial species in the guts of the ants in different environments and seasons.