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[-] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 109 points 5 months ago

Bug isn't even a technical term. Lobsters are considered bugs!

[-] danc4498@lemmy.world 61 points 5 months ago

That's a great point you big dumb bitch.

[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 43 points 5 months ago

Yeah I always assumed "bug" was like "vegetable"


it's a colloquial, not taxonomic, term. But there are "true bugs" so maybe the analogy isn't completely sound.

(And tomato is absolutely a vegetable.)

[-] dh34d@lemmynsfw.com 17 points 5 months ago

They're culinary vegetables. My wife likes to say it like this: intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that it doesn't go in a fruit salad.

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 18 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I always love the "explaining dnd stats with a tomato" bit:

Strength is being able to throw a tomato really far.

Dexterity is being able to catch the tomato thrown really far.

Constitution is being fine after eating a bad tomato.

Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is knowing a tomato doesn't go in fruit salad.

Charisma is being able to sell a tomato based fruit salad.

Also, obligatory "salsa is tomato in a fruit salad".

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[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 5 months ago

Agreed. In my mind "bug" has always meant arthropod. So it's include insects, spiders, crustaceans, etc.

[-] Lizardking27@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I'm sorry but you're simply incorrect.

Bug is a technical term. Only insects of order Hemiptera, categorized by the ability to fly and the presence of piercing, sucking mouth parts, are considered true bugs.

Lobsters are certainly not considered bugs.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 17 points 5 months ago

I'm sorry but you're simply incorrect. Bug can be a technical term, but that doesn't also preclude it from also being a non-technical term, because words often have more than one meaning. See also: theory.

[-] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Merriam-Webster, definition 1:

a: any of an order (Hemiptera and especially its suborder Heteroptera) of insects (such as an assassin bug or chinch bug) that have sucking mouthparts, forewings thickened at the base, and incomplete metamorphosis and are often economic pests

called also true bug

b: any of various small arthropods (such as a beetle or spider) resembling the true bugs

c: any of several insects (such as a head louse) commonly considered obnoxious

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[-] frezik@midwest.social 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The scientific taxonomic system was made, in part, because traditional colloquial terms are a mess. For example, "daddy longlegs" refers to a type of spider in my area, but there are two other animals and three plants that it could refer to depending on where you grew up. Taxonomists saw that there are ten different standards, decided to make a new one to replace them all, and for once, it actually worked out for the most part.

"Bug" is one of those old terms. It might have been mapped post hoc on top of the modern taxonomic system, but it didn't start that way, and isn't always used that way. I wouldn't expect an entomologist to use the term at all in formal contexts.

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[-] Squirrel@thelemmy.club 5 points 5 months ago

But they wanted to feel smugly superior! Poor fella can't even be pedantic properly...

[-] Rooskie91@discuss.online 65 points 5 months ago

Jesus Christ someone get that dude a therapist.

[-] Pilgrim@beehaw.org 16 points 5 months ago

But his username is mentally healthy so how could he need a therapist?

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[-] Voyajer@lemmy.world 65 points 5 months ago
[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 49 points 5 months ago

So close. Less beer, fewer beers. Both acceptable.

[-] chetradley@lemmy.world 43 points 5 months ago

The number one rule for pedants is: if you're going to be pedantic, you'd damn well better be correct.

[-] Skoobie@sh.itjust.works 36 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Display Name: Mentally Healthy

Username: EAT_ROADKILL

Dude is at odds with himself.

[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 14 points 5 months ago

Duality of man

[-] mhague@lemmy.world 31 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I'm not a scientist, but I'm the kind of person to keep black widows as pets and create a website that catalogues all the spiders in my area. I'd allow spiders being called bugs, or even insects. Even poisonous is alright but it does hurt a little.

[-] Endmaker@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago

create a website that catalogues all the spiders in my area

You are a web developer looking for other web developers ;)

[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 9 points 5 months ago

We're going to need a link

[-] mhague@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It was a Google site (from years ago) so all that's left is a random archive somewhere. I had all the local spiders+favorites, but the only original content were pictures of Latrodectus and Kukulkania Hibernalis. Beautiful spiders.

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[-] HowManyNimons@lemmy.world 26 points 5 months ago
[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 14 points 5 months ago

They're autonomous content scraping internet bots. Aka web crawlers.

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[-] Delusional@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago

Stupid science bitch couldn't even understand the joke.

[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 months ago
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[-] AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 22 points 5 months ago
  1. there is no scientific definition of "bug". the entire category is a social construct much like vegetables
  2. this person's first sentence defined spiderd as insects and the second sentence said they weren't
[-] NeverNudeNo13@lemmings.world 11 points 5 months ago

They are missing some punctuation where it was desperately needed but imagine a comma or period after " spiders are not bugs" and reread.

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[-] Zacryon@lemmy.wtf 8 points 5 months ago

TIL, vegetables are a social construct.

This article illustrates this nicely:
https://athensscienceobserver.com/2019/09/30/vegetables-are-a-social-construct/

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[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

A retort in three parts;

  1. It's bugs (colloquial), not Bugs (texanomic),

  2. There's being pedantic and then there's being a jackass - that's you, jackass, and

  3. @eat_roadkill should embrace their name and go chow down on a three-day-dead skunk.

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[-] AppleMango@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

username doesn't check out...

[-] azi@mander.xyz 10 points 5 months ago

Anyone know what the first known case of 'bug' exclusively referring to Hemipterans/Heteropterans? The first use of bug being applied to arthropods was in the 1620s in reference to bedbugs (in Hemiptera but not Heteroptera) with the term ladybug (not in Hemiptera) first attested in the 1690s. Both predate Linnean taxonomy. So why and when did entomologists decide to coin this highly restrictive definition? It's a very English-language term so it surely wasn't when the taxon was created by Linnaeus.

[-] exocrinous@startrek.website 9 points 5 months ago

Taxonomy is a conspiracy invented by neckbeards so they could "um ackshually" us when we call a bug a bug.

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this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
1189 points (98.7% liked)

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