About those Piranha Bugs - LOOOOONG

I was lying awake last night thinking about the posts on the Piranha
bugs 
scenario (I know, I know.... I'm shopping for a life this weekend). 
While I 
have no problem with the idea of the bugs themselves, something about it

didn't quite stick right, and I finally put together my
thoughts/suggestions 
on the subject.

Let me preface them by making a couple of disclaimers.

First I am NOT a biologist.  If anything I say is incorrect, I'm sure
Beth 
will set me straight in her usual gracious manner.  Heck, I'm not an
expert 
at ANYTHING  -- but I am familiar with many subjects.  Unfortunately,
the 
downside of being so easily interested is I am also easily distracted.	
Anyone who knows me well but choses not to like me might even accuse me
of 
being a bit of a dilletante.  But I think I've picked up enough to make
this 
make sense.

Second, I will be making some comments based on general observations.  I
in 
NO way claim that ANY of these are hard fast rules.  I will do my best
to 
use phrases like it SEEMS, TENDS, GENERALLY, etc.  I know that any time
you 
post an opinion about a general trend, many on the list like to reply
with 
some example of something that bucks the trend.  I'm well aware that
there 
are exceptions to these general tendencies, but I do NOT think that
detracts 
from the validity of the observations.

Having said all that, away we go:

I noticed that it was stated that there were numerous mounds of these
bugs 
within proximity to one another,  While the bugs themselves are quite 
believable, I have a problem with this.  This is why.  Colonizing
insects 
TEND to protect their nests/lairs VERY violently - as the scenario
attests.  
Predatory animals, particularly social ones, TEND to be very
territorial.  
Combine the two, as in Colonizing Predatory Insects, and you TEND to get

animals that are EXTREMELY turf-conscious.  I've seen footage of ants
going 
at it with other ants over nests/territory - it ain't pretty.  Makes
many 
human wars seem calm when taken in scale.

So these bugs aren't going to want bugs from another nest in their 
territory.  Fair enough.  But why can't the territory be small enough
that 
these mounds can be within a couple hundred metres?  Well, remember
they're 
predatory.  Predator territories AS A GENERAL RULE have a relationship
to 
the amount of food required by the predator and the amount of food 
available.  The more a predator eats, and the more often it has to eat,
the 
larger the territory it tends to try to defend.  And the frequency (even

more than the amount at any one meal) that a predator must eat tends to
be 
related to it's metabolism.  And small, quick, active, flying animals
(eg 
hummingbirds) tend to need to eat more frequently.  Which means these
bugs 
probably need to eat pretty frequently.  This means that either the
country 
around them is carpeted in prey animals, or they must maintain a fairly 
large territory.  That's why I doubt there'll be many mounds close
together. 
  I could be wrong.  But if I ran them in a scenario, I'd have a nest 
density of maybe 1-2/Km2....

Brian B2

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