this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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Science Memes

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bugs (mander.xyz)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 104 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] danc4498 61 points 7 months ago

That's a great point you big dumb bitch.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

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".

[–] keyez 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Isn't a tomato the only fruit in salsa?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

...no, salsa is mostly peppers...

[–] EtherWhack 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Can't forget about peppers

[–] keyez 2 points 7 months ago

I hadn't but wasn't thinking of them as fruit, also has a lot of onions which also isn't a fruit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

You know you can just put whatever you want in your salsa right, no cop is gonna stop you. I have a very nice mango salsa the other night, it was only one step removed from a fancy fruit salad.

[–] ProtonEvoker 4 points 7 months ago

And the obligatory response to the “tomato-based fruit salad” response: “found the bard!”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Alternatively you could stick with the theme established by the first two stats and say that constitution is throwing a tomato really far repeatedly.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You wouldn't say that if you ever tried those tomatoes https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/01/17/culture/foodTravel/tomango-tomato/20210117130800678.html

I'd even call them candy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Injected with.. stevia?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I'd prefer vodka in watermelons, personally!

[–] Lizardking27 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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.

[–] RizzRustbolt 1 points 7 months ago

Crawdads are still mudbugs though.

[–] RampantParanoia2365 1 points 7 months ago

But commonly it's a catch all for any creepy crawly, including arachnid. The classification is even called True Bug, not just Bug

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

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