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>Crustaceans are very distantly related to "bugs," How do you figure? What makes them not a bug? Generally the distinction I see is that people consider pretty

>Crustaceans are very distantly related to "bugs," How do you figure? What makes them not a bug? Generally the distinction I see is that people consider pretty much all arthopods bugs unless they're big and live in the sea and cognitive dissonance doesn't want them to think about that they like eating bugs. Sure, they're not /insects/ but neither are spiders or centipedes. Heck, I think most people consider "Pill Bugs" to be bugs, it's in the name. Those /are/ crustaceans. Don't know how they taste, though.

trimethylpurine 3y ago
Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera, not crustaceans. As for flavor, second hand account indicates that bugs taste like chicken, while first hand account indicates lobster doesn't taste like chicken, at least not to me.
- ribosometronome 3y ago
  >Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera Contextually, we're downstream in a conversation caused by someone saying they will not eat bugs. If you had to guess, do you think someone yelling they won't eat bugs would eat fried crickets? Or popcorn pill bugs? Shrimp fried bees? Chocolate cockroach crunch cereal? None of those are hemipterans. I imagine those are all pretty well covered by the "I will not eat bugs!" statement.
  - trimethylpurine 3y ago
    All that's true also, but since he said "scientifically" I thought it was important to point out that it wasn't the case. And more directly that lobster really isn't very similar to cricket at all, so even though people like to gross each other out by saying it's the same, it's really not. Cockroach is much more similar to grasshopper than lobster. And yet plenty of people eat grasshoppers, but very few eat cockroaches. Therein lies the nuance. Lobster is so different from "bugs" that we shouldn't be grossed out by the false claim that it's the same thing, any more than someone would want tomatoes on their hamburger, simply because they like pickles.

trimethylpurine 3y ago

Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera, not crustaceans. As for flavor, second hand account indicates that bugs taste like chicken, while first hand account indicates lobster doesn't taste like chicken, at least not to me.

ribosometronome 3y ago
>Scientifically, "bugs" refers to hemiptera Contextually, we're downstream in a conversation caused by someone saying they will not eat bugs. If you had to guess, do you think someone yelling they won't eat bugs would eat fried crickets? Or popcorn pill bugs? Shrimp fried bees? Chocolate cockroach crunch cereal? None of those are hemipterans. I imagine those are all pretty well covered by the "I will not eat bugs!" statement.
- trimethylpurine 3y ago
  All that's true also, but since he said "scientifically" I thought it was important to point out that it wasn't the case. And more directly that lobster really isn't very similar to cricket at all, so even though people like to gross each other out by saying it's the same, it's really not. Cockroach is much more similar to grasshopper than lobster. And yet plenty of people eat grasshoppers, but very few eat cockroaches. Therein lies the nuance. Lobster is so different from "bugs" that we shouldn't be grossed out by the false claim that it's the same thing, any more than someone would want tomatoes on their hamburger, simply because they like pickles.