this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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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.
The ocean is quite literally lousy with sea lice. They've even got rolly-pollies down there.
Not just roly-polies, but Rollison J. Pollimagnussons:
What in the name of Cthulhu is this?
Rollison. And he is a rather pleasant dude.
Hereβs what they look like full-grown:
Its an adorable isopod
They creep me the eff out. Them and horseshoe crabs. Shudder
Delicious.
Unhand at once me you filthy dry-skinned ape!
Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop
i'd like to differ
Crickets in cheeto dust taste fine...soon in a 7/11 near you π
Youβre already eating bugs, in fact the FDA has so-called βfood defect action levelsβ, which define the acceptable levels of food βcontaminationβ from sources such as maggot and insect fragments among other things (best not to think too hard about it) in your daily food.
I make a point of referring to birds as "feather-bugs", much to the weary resignation of my RL friends.
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?
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.
Birds, mostly males, get all flashy and showy to attract a mate, and bees all answer to the matriarch of the family, so itβs just like life. Obviously.
Maybe the saying came from the mirror universe..
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.
My grandma referred to dogs as bugs (positively) and you know what, I agree
Bugcat :3
uh, slugs are bugs! any non-vertibrate animal is a bug
I'mma be honest, I would not instinctively agree with this.
I suggest "bug" applies exclusively to chitinous invertebrates.
I'm trying to square my instinct that
Snail shells aren't chitinous.
Crab shells are chitinous.
Hermit crabs are only partly chitinous, and the shells they use are not chitinous.
Hope that helps
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.
yeah, i would say "a bug is something that annoys you" so a virus could maybe be perceived as a bug as well, though i also would like to point out that "annoy" does not mean "i don't like it". it's like doing sports, it can be painful but also very fun
βBugsβ even refers to errors on computers. Funny how the pedants donβt go into computer forums and berate the coders for using βbugβ incorrectly.
Because it comes from a literal bug that messed with a computer.
Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s.
I just watched a mad scientists refer to shrimp, lobster and coconut crab as bugs for the purpose of making giant insects.