I am ignorant in this field. If not an insect, what is it? [Serious question]
#notaworm
Submitted 1 week ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/33d0e119-0447-4b74-9f1d-e9744bb7c318.jpeg
Comments
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world 1 week ago
These are part of their own family of invertebrates.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onychophora
Insects are a specific family that have 6 legs. So a bee or an ant are insects but a spider or a rolls polly is not.
Classy@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
flora_explora@beehaw.org 1 week ago
Well… The taxonomy of invertebrates is pretty complicated and diverse and there are many huge groups of invertebrates. Velvet worms (Onychophora) seem to be their own thing, so maybe just think of them as another invertebrate group. Like molluscs (snails, mussels, cephalopods), or tardigrades or nematodes, these are all their own groups as well. But obviously this is all much more complicated if you look at it in detail.
Insects are also invertebrates, but are just one group within the arthropods, which also contain e.g. spiders, crustaceans, millipedes. Maybe a good rule would be that there aren’t any worms in the insects. And that all insects have six legs. So if something has more legs, it’s not an insect.
Hope that helps? The more you dig down into taxonomy, the more interesting it gets!! And insect taxonomy in itself is just so huge and mind-boggling :)
d00ery@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It’s a Pokémon
Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 1 week ago
Mollusc probably
sebsch@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
I can’t help with what it is, but I can say why it can’t be an insect. All insects have per definition exactly 6 legs.
atyaz@hexbear.net 1 week ago
But don’t insect larvae sometimes look kind of like that
courier8377@hexbear.net 1 week ago
They constitute their own phylum, Onychophora!
sleen@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
cutest insect
I’ll bet that when someone touches it they’ll die an horrible death.
huginn@feddit.it 1 week ago
It does shoot cum ropes out of its face to catch prey
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 1 week ago
its existence is so good, the moment something touches it
can@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
CptEnder@lemmy.world 1 week ago
cybervseas@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Are we going to talk about it’s goop?
MrFappy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
No Gwyneth, we are leaving that off the table of discussion for now.
fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 1 week ago
Bortles? Is that you?
kspatlas@lemm.ee 1 week ago
What about the rosy maple moth?
grubberfly@mander.xyz 1 week ago
it’s funny how the bottom image is still true on its own
Image