Thank you ! I've sometimes thought that intelligence can make a species more deadly, because it can use whatever natural weapons nature has given it more cunningly.
Just look at humans 😉 Slower and squishier than anything else on the African savannah, no claws, small teeth, can't fly and no armour. I can imagine the watching alien who bet on us emerging as the dominant species a couple of million years later was probably mocked by it's fellows !
As for Meranda IV... I have a feeling I'll be writing the story of the colony soon. I'm not sure the direction it'll go, but I think the spidery-spiny things might have to show how bad they can be.....
!BBH
!PIZZA