this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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Science Memes
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Somebody's been watching Clint's Reptiles.
Or maybe not, otherwise they wouldn't group snails (assuming that weird human skull thing is supposed to be a snail) in with "bugs". But anyway, the link is a detailed look at what's morphologically wrong with all these plastic skeletons.
It's not like "bug" is a scientific word or has a universally accepted definition. The narrowest (and possibly the original) definition is just hemiptera, an order of insects. It being more broadly synonymous with "insect", is pretty common; so is the broader definition including all land arthropods. But an even broader definition including all land invertebrates isn't unheard of.
From Wikipedia:
No way did it initially mean hemiptera, and it is awfully broad now, see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bug noun def 4
I would argue a snail is not a bug under any circumstances. That's would either be a poor grasp of English, complete inability to count, or impressive levels of ignorance.
But I would totally accept if someone failed to distinguish a hemipteran from another six-legged arthropod and called them both bugs. That's normal.
Worms are bugs too. The word is incredibly broad. Just because science uses it narrowly doesn't make bug a word with a narrow meaning. Most of us aren't entomologists
IMO, "bugs" have features like exoskeletons, compound eyes, and appendages (legs, wings, antennae). So claiming that somehow includes worms is worse than saying "bats are bugs".
No. Just... no.
On Wiktionary noun definition 4 for bug includes worm. It's an ancient word that has a variety of meanings, only one of which is the scientific definition. Does bug spray only kill insects in hemiptera? I thought it was mostly used on flies.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bug