An international team of biologists have been able to read out the genetic code of Argentine ants who have acted as invaders of home throughout the world, thus revealing the clues about their origin and living.

The team has been led by Christopher D. Smith, scientist from San Francisco State University and Neil D. Tsutsui of UC Berkeley.

The report will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and in the Public Library of Science, PloS.

Christopher D. Smith, a molecular biologist at San Francisco State, said "We now have blueprints for understanding the genetic basis of behavior in the Argentine ants," and added "We've found the genes for determining their development as queens and worker ants, for how queen ants produce chemicals that prevent ant larvae from developing into adults, and for their resistance to toxic chemicals."

Red harvesters are the extremely large ants that can bite. Fire ants have the potential to kill small animals and can also bite humans.

Researchers are aiming at knowing the behavior and evolution of these ant groups by studing their gene culture.

The researchers revealed that the Argentina ants have 367 genes for sensory receptors for odor and 116 genes for taste, while honey bee has only 174 genes for odor and 10 for taste and mosquitoes have just 79 for odor and 76 for taste.

The small, brown and ubiquitous Argentina ant is found in warmer areas of US, Asia, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean regions.