Except…what do spiders eat? Hence, a bug-lite would fit perfectly with their favoured prey. Big-brain missed the obvious.
That’s a typical case of someone who is so eager to sounds right in an argument that they will not bother double checking to see if they missed the original point or true meaning before replying.
There are a lot of people like that on Reddit. Well, I assume there still are I deleted my account a while ago. What a toxic place.
- there is no scientific definition of “bug”. the entire category is a social construct much like vegetables
- this person’s first sentence defined spiderd as insects and the second sentence said they weren’t
Neither of those two sentences define the spider as either insect or non insect. Did you even read them?
*Edit: I understood wrong your comment is valid but phrased weirdly
And the first sentence literally describes the scientific definition of bug…
TIL, vegetables are a social construct.
This article illustrates this nicely:
https://athensscienceobserver.com/2019/09/30/vegetables-are-a-social-construct/
They are missing some punctuation where it was desperately needed but imagine a comma or period after " spiders are not bugs" and reread.
Bug isn’t even a technical term. Lobsters are considered bugs!
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.)
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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
“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”
This is the primary and most correct definition of bug.
Yes, people use it wrong. That doesn’t change the definition of the word.
Neil Degrasse Tyson tier reply
