@futurebird my brother the entomologist has always classified certain insects as "true bugs", but I forget what clade he's referring to when he says that. Also I gather the classification is kind of an in-joke among entomologists. (Not that he'd ever admit that. There are things he deadpanned about when we were kids, decades ago, that he only now comes clean on, & "true bugs" has become a running joke with his kids so I imagine he'll carry that one to his grave.)
@futurebird
None of the above. To me, bugs are insects. The exception that proves the rule is sow bugs / pill bugs / woodlice, which are actually crustaceans. But arachnids, scorpions, marine crustaceans, and other non-insectile arthropods are NOT bugs.
@futurebird
None of the above. Earthworm, tardigrades, and muscles & clams aren’t even in the phylum Arthropoda, and while lobsters etc are, they’re not in the class Insecta, where I would put all the bugs.
@futurebird Not completely sea/water dwelling invertebrates, or resembling such things even if it is completely sea/water dwelling, with lobsters, crabs, and shrimp specifically not being bugs. This probably makes no scientific sense, but is how I would label them.
@futurebird I use it as a synonym for 'insect' except when I'm talking about vertebrate pets who are 'bugs' but the etymology is different cause they 'bug people for attention ' in an endearing way, ofc.
However, I wouldn't be averse to equating 'bug' to all hexapods, largely because I can never remember the rest of the clade, lol
@futurebird to me, a "bug" has to be a have paired legs and a segmented body, so tardigrade and those crustaceans are "bugs" but worms and molluscs aren't
@goaty I'm totally on the same page. I didn't grow up eating crustaceans so from an outsiders perspective they just looked like sea bugs to me. I'll eat them today, but they're still bugs in my book!
@futurebird bugs r jointy, crawl, smaller than thumb, and big enough to tell by naked eye that they crawl and are jointy, so not tardis and really really tiny mites. spiders count.
if i grew up on the ocean MAYBE i'd consider crustacea bugs, not sure.
other land arthropds like pill bugs and centipedes ok.
baby toads are ALMOST bugs. monarch butterflies are NOT.
@futurebird I don’t eat bugs, so if I eat them, they are automatically no longer bugs in my book. I declassified some critters while travelling in Mexico.
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