this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
1192 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

11431 readers
2460 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [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.