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air dog's avatar

Eh. I think this one is more about terminology than phylum taxonomy. It's a Semantics Moment, more than a Science Moment.

Wikipedia, like most Americans, says that "bugs" commonly means "terrestrial arthropods", not all arthropods. Insects, arachnids, and myriapods are thus commonly considered bugs. Crustaceans are not.

I, for one, will not be eating the bugs.

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Mark Changizi's avatar

Snails (mollusks) are bugs. Worms (annelids) are bugs. Crustaceans are very close cousins of arthropods we have taboos for.

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air dog's avatar

What is a bug? I would say worms (annelids, nematodes, and platyhelminthes) are indeed bugs, and I don't eat them. Snails and crustaceans are not bugs, and I do eat them (rarely, as it happens).

Semantics.

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Mark Changizi's avatar

We call the ones we have taboos for… ‘bugs’.

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air dog's avatar

Precisely - the isssue is the meaning or usage of the word "bugs". Semantics.

Though it's more complicated than you suggest. For example, there are taboos against eating rats. Also dogs. We don't call them bugs.

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Mark Changizi's avatar

Bugs refer to small-ish non-vertebrates for which we have taboos. We have words like “vermin” and surely others for vertebrates we have taboos for.

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air dog's avatar

"Beloved pets", for example.

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