azurelunatic | Pouncer's Butterbug Song (archived from the list, 15 June 1999)

anthropophagic: An alien species (sentient or otherwise) that eats human people-type sentients.
fratriphagic: An alien species (sentient or otherwise) that eats other members of that species.
cannibalistic: A sentient species that (knowingly) eats other sentients of any species.

So, cannibals might be fratriphagic _OR_ anthropophagic.

Heinlein's Smith was both.

However, Pournelle/Niven's grendels, who ate _anything_, might not be either -- if one supposes the pre-sapient samlon (larval grendels) don't count.

Now, let's talk about NON-sentients. What about butterbugs? They'll reported eat "any Earth-descended organic matter", right? And the bugs themselves are organic? And gene-gineered from Earth-descended stock?

One supposes they might be able to discern "sibling" butterbugs from their shared queen butter bug, versus "cousin" or even "stranger" butterbugs spawned by a different butterbug queen. Even if they won't eat sibling butterbugs, would they, like 'army ants', attack and eat other butter bugs? Especially since the butterbugs might have a hivefull, or (taking an individual target of opportunity, an abdomen-full) of butterbug butter that has already been processed. If these were naturally evolved critters, I can see where certain kinds of butterbugs might make an ecological profit as predators on weaker butterbugs. Would they then be cannibals, fratriphages, or what?

It's moot. The butterbugs exist only in the lab.

For the time being...

If the butterbugs are bottled
and the bottles are all stoppered
then the stoppers stop the butterbugs
from leaving all their bottles.

But, are the stoppers made of rubber?
Or all the bottles stopped with cork?
And would cork or natural rubber
(Earth-descended) stoppers work?

Would they? Could they? Would they stop
the butterbugs in Enrique's shop?

The butterbugs may linger
in their bottles on the table
until they feel some hunger,
then, I'd bet that they'd be able
to attack the bottle stoppers
with their buggy mandibles and
open up the bottle tops for
a full butterbug rebellion.

If bottle ONE's unstoppered top lets a few
hungry butterbugs out of their bottle, then you
should know that the stopper of bugbottle TWO
will be, soon, bottle-one butterbug fodder, too.

And so the bottle-one butterbugs might
get into a bottle-two butterbug fight.

(Now I'm starting to get very badly confused
with bottle-one /bottle-two names being used
We could call the bottle-one bugs butterBEETLES
and this might avoid some confusion -- a little --
if the bugs at the bottom of bottle two
are just butterBUGS. Does this bother you? )

So the butterbeetles battle
in the butterbug's home bottle
They battle for the butter,
all the butter in the bottle.
'Cause the butterbeetles think
the butterbugs' butter is better.
And even though the butterbugs
think the butter battle's bitter
they won't let the butterbeetles
steal one bite of buggy butter.
And from clear across the table
you can hear the bottle rattle
from the clash of buggy mandibles
when butterbugs do battle.

--Pouncer (altpouncer@yahoo.com)

Pouncer's Butterbug Song (archived from the list, 15 June 1999)

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