RE: About those Piranha Bugs - LOOOOONG (Scavenger vs. Predator)

There are two issues here - attacking for defense and consuming for
food.  If the only goal was defense, then a single bite or sting might
be effective - you are just trying to deter the opponent from doing what
he is doing.  Stripping a person to the bone is resource gathering - it
is far more than is required to deter someone.

This type of behavior might be reflex - that these insects automatically
swarm and collect as much food as possible when it is available.  If
that food becomes available during a defense maneuver, so much the
better for the hive since less energy is required to transport the food
home.

Plus, the orignal report said "millions" of them - if you had a million
needles and a needle gun you could probably "eat the flesh" off
someone's bones.  So even a single bite per insect would lead to the
effect that all their flesh was simply shredded off, not consumed.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Bilderback [mailto:bbilderback@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 3:11 PM
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: RE: About those Piranha Bugs - LOOOOONG (Scavenger vs.
> Predator)
> 
> 
> David Rodemaker wrote:
> 
> >This is also assuming that 'stripping to the bone' is not merely a 
> >defensive
> >reaction. Like a hive of bee's swarming and stinging. They 
> might eat and
> >excrete dirt like an earthworm...
> 
> Seems like a lot of energy to expend on defense when just 
> biting for pain is 
> so effective and much more efficient for so many other 
> animals.  I could be 
> wrong, but the original description really seemed to indicate 
> that these 
> were predators.
> 
> Brian B2
> 
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