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i said typically, and colloquially. literally zero people refer to hemiptera specifically when they say bug. if you look at the american heritage dictionary, that’s the exact order used in the definitions:

#bug
/bŭg/

noun

An insect having mouthparts used for piercing and sucking, such as an aphid, a bedbug, or a stinkbug.
An insect of any kind, such as a cockroach or a ladybug.
A small invertebrate with many legs, such as a spider or a centipede.

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Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

American

Very ethnocentric of you. I first heard it from Stephen Fry, so no, not literally zero people.

Also, it’s literally the first definition there. That’s the definition of the species in hemiptera. Just because you don’t know anyone who knows orders of animals in latin doesn’t mean we don’t exist.

I for one always enjoyed reading taxonomy, especially because sometimes translating a species can be quite weird if you don’t know the translation and have to essentially hope that the yellow-breasted warbler is the thing they also described it as in the other language. Sometimes it’s another feature.

But I’m sure you’d know roughly what I mean if I refer to the order of primates. Possibly the infraorder cetacean as well. Especially if you’ve watched Star Trek religiously.

Stephen Fry on Insects, and the beauty of nature and Evolution

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