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🍺 🍻 (mander.xyz)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 152 points 10 months ago (32 children)

Ok but "bug" has multiple meanings, and almost nobody means "hemiptera" when they say it. More commonly, it's any terrestrial arthropod. Arachnids are bugs. Centipedes are definitely bugs.

Heck, there's a broader definition that basically includes all arthropods. "Moreton bay bugs" are a popular food this time of year. And they're a kind of lobster.

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  • [–] 60 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    The ocean is quite literally lousy with sea lice. They've even got rolly-pollies down there.

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  • [–] 27 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Not just roly-polies, but Rollison J. Pollimagnussons:

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  • [–] 17 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    What in the name of Cthulhu is this?

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I make a point of referring to birds as "feather-bugs", much to the weary resignation of my RL friends.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    the birds and the bugs

    i don't actually know why it's called "the birds and the bees" (am not american, never had it in school) but i suspect it stands for the big and little flying things?

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    We don't really know where the phrase came from. My guess is that they're things from nature that alliterate, which makes it sound cute and innocent.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    terrestrial arthropod

    i'd like to differ

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    Crickets in cheeto dust taste fine...soon in a 7/11 near you πŸ˜›

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    You’re already eating bugs, in fact the FDA has so-called β€œfood defect action levels”, which define the acceptable levels of food β€œcontamination” from sources such as maggot and insect fragments among other things (best not to think too hard about it) in your daily food.

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago

    Where I live, the definition of a bug is super liberal to the point of absurdity.

    But even that's been topped a few times over the years. When I used to be active on Reddit, I would participate in the "bug" identification sub. It wasn't frequent, but it also wasn't all the uncommon for folks to show up asking for ID on reptiles and amphibians, even remember that a shrew (or maybe it was some other small mammal) was posted once.

    It wasn't that big of a surprise for me. I used to work retail decades ago and I remember a customer who returned a bag of salad greens because there was a bug in it. The "bug" was a very small baby frog (just out of tadpole stage) -- likely some kind of tree frog.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    β€œBugs” even refers to errors on computers. Funny how the pedants don’t go into computer forums and berate the coders for using β€œbug” incorrectly.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    uh, slugs are bugs! any non-vertibrate animal is a bug

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  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    uh, slugs are bugs

    I'mma be honest, I would not instinctively agree with this.

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I suggest "bug" applies exclusively to chitinous invertebrates.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I'm trying to square my instinct that

    1. snails aren't bugs (because they're squishy without the shell) with the feeling that
    2. crabs are bugs (because they'd go tap-tap if you tapped on their exoskeleton with a finger) but
    3. hermit crabs aren't bugs if they're in a shell but are bugs if they're naked
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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I would. I think that just goes to show how informal and unworthy of policing the term is. We even call viruses bugs a lot of the time.

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