Oh, how cool.

There are predatory bacteria, species that prey upon other bacteria.

All of these predatory species rely on oversized flagella that enable them to move quickly through aqueous environments and reach their target. Big honkin' outboard motors, if you will, or akin to water-jet engines, making these the cigarette-boats of bacteria.

Many of them latch on and then break through the outermost membrane of the victim bacteria, and the predator will grow rapidly in this in-between space. This variety is called 'epibiotic', and apparently are obligate predators--the commited carnivores of the microscopic world.

The other variety requires that the predatory bacteria reach a certain density of attackers clustered on or around the prey, and when this density is achieved, the predators jointly release enzymes to chew up the prey from the outside. This variety is called 'wolfpack'.

I was floored by the mental image of a group of microscopic predators, slithering through muck or zooming through water, howlingwith the joy of the hunt, flagellating viciously after a much larger, slower bacterium that came to know fear as the wolfpack predatory bacteria closed in...

I think I'm gonna need me a 'Cool! Science' icon, soon. Yeah, I'm wierd. Sue me. ;-)