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:
collapsed inline media
What in the name of Cthulhu is this?
Its an adorable isopod
Hereβs what they look like full-grown:
collapsed inline media
Unhand at once me you filthy dry-skinned ape!
Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop
I make a point of referring to birds as "feather-bugs", much to the weary resignation of my RL friends.
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.
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 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.
I just watched a mad scientists refer to shrimp, lobster and coconut crab as bugs for the purpose of making giant insects.
My grandma referred to dogs as bugs (positively) and you know what, I agree
Bugcat :3
βBugsβ even refers to errors on computers. Funny how the pedants donβt go into computer forums and berate the coders for using βbugβ incorrectly.
Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s.