RE: About those Piranha Bugs - LOOOOONG (and more LOOOOONG)

>From: "B Lin" <lin@rxkinetix.com>
>Reply-To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
>To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
>Subject: RE: About those Piranha Bugs - LOOOOONG (and more LOOOOONG)
>Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 13:46:43 -0700
>
>I would tend to model the pirahna bugs on a bee type system.  Some 
>comparisons first:
>
>Pirahna bugs are relatively small and numerous, so are bees.
>
>Assuming the pirahna bugs are living in nest because they are colony
type 
>bugs, it would be implied that they are gathering food for the hive,
not 
>the individual.  This in turn implies some sort of transport capability
as 
>well as storage ability.  This again would make them simlar to bees.
>
>You can pack several hives of bees relatively close together (e.g. 
>beekeeping).  Bees roam miles and miles to gather their food even if
hives 
>are in close proximity.  So it would be possible for several hives to
cover 
>the same territory.

Piranha Bugs are (It seemed from the write-up) carnivorous.  Bees are
not.  
Wasps and hornets are, but they tend to have smaller hives and
Don't pack separate hives together as nicely as bees (And Africanized
bees 
lean in this direction as well).

>I suspect that bees are less competitive simply because it is difficult
to 
>steal their nectar/pollen easily in transit.  Highly combative or
predatory 
>insects tend to be over the types of food that are easily stolen -
whole 
>leaves, grubs, insect parts.

Not to mention the fact that once a bee from one nest takes nectar from
a 
flower, there's still more nectar being produced.  That dead animal can
only 
be eaten (in it's carcass form) once.  Prey is renewable, but not as 
renewable as flowers.  Look at the attention a kill on the African
plains 
creates among all the local predators/scavengers.  Most predators are 
opportunistic and very competitive.

*SNIP*
>If the mechanism is somthing like this, it would seem more advantageous
to 
>have greater numbers of workers to rapidly dissect and transport a food

>source rather than wasting effort on breeding soldiers to intercept or 
>guard against opposing workers since you don't directly benefit by
killing 
>opposing workers (i.e. you can't steal their package of food).  It
would be 
>a more successful strategy of having overwhelming numbers of workers so

>that if a food source does appear, you can grab more of it in a shorter

>amount of time.

True as far as it goes.  But while the food already in the worker may be

difficult toi steal, the remains still on the carcass CAN be be stolen. 
And 
if you breed workers who aren't hunters too, the animal isn't dead in
the 
first place.  Also, the total number of bugs in the area can't exceed
the 
local ecology's ability to sustain them.  This will be the main limit on

numbers of bugs, regardless of whether they're several colonies or one
big 
one - it'll never get bigger than  what the prey population can support
- at 
least not for very long before starvation reduces them back to
equilibrium.

>I would also think that this type of insect is more of a scavenger
rather 
>than an active hunter, looking for non-moving flesh, rather than
actively 
>hunting down moving creatures.  If this is the case, the local fauna
may 
>not see them as a major threat and be willing to live among such hives.
 If 
>there is a high concentration of fauna, there are probably more
carcasses 
>for the hives to feed off of.

Anything that defends it's nest as ferociously as that will be a threat 
whether it's a predator or a scavenger.  Look at the example of
Africanized 
bees.  They don't eat the animals they kill, but they're still a real 
threat, especially when introduced to areas where they're not native.

Brian B2

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