This is nice because it focuses mainly on deep evolutionary history, talking about how, contrary to common opinion, spiders are not particularly closely related to insects.
They’re all crunchies together, rather than squishies. Isn’t that enough to combine them in an evolutionary taxonomy?
(Nope.)
Remembering all those times Spider-Man complained about villains calling him an insect. Do remember one cartoon when he issued a similar complaint about being called a “bug,” which I always thought included anything with an exoskeleton aside from aquatic crustaceans. (Yes, I continue to insist rolly-pollies are bugs, even if they are terrestrial crustaceans. Also Crow T. Robot was right that soup is a quadruped in Earth Versus Soup. It’s stew that’d clearly be a biped if hit with Hollywood radiation. /silliness)
@Recursive Rabbit #1 – Since English is not my native language, I wonder if there even is a common conception of what is or is not a ‘bug’? My understanding is quite like yours and it does include arachnids.
True bugs is a real insect classification in entomology.
Insects have six legs and three body segments. They go through complete metamorphosis. Many have winged adult forms.
Spiders and mites are arachnids. They have eight legs, just like octopuses but nobody would consider the octopus a bug, though many do consider slugs and snails as bugs despite them being mollusks.
Bug overlaps with creepy-crawlies but not all creepy crawlers qualify as bugs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera
Arachnids are indeed more unique than I thought – but I don’t see their special “creepiness” alleged in the video.
Nice video. I enjoyed it.
—
One trivial thing:
“pointy appendages that help them kill
1:23
and consume their prey most noteworthy
1:26
of these were the small claws just above
1:28
its mouth known as the ciser [chelicerae] which would
1:30
be inherited by all of its
ancestors1:33
including spiders as this is where”
(People confuse ‘ancestors’ with ‘descendants’ all the time)
‘Arthropod’ is a longer word than ‘bug’ so in popular language we will probably be stuck with incorrect labels for things with exoskeletons.
The comparison of lungs, spiders vs. scorpions, seems interesting. I really can’t guess why. Seriously.
‘Bug’ is an old word according to Etymology Online, earliest use in the 1620s to describe insects including beetles. It was subsequently seconded by entomologists exclusively for Hemiptera and/or Heteroptera and apparently not all entomologists agree on which orders should be called true bugs. I would suggest this makes it one of the few occasions where common use is superior to scientific use.
Checking it out with TimeTree, which was posted here some time back, the divergence point between insects and spiders was around 548 MYA, which is a little more recent than humans and lampreys (563 MYA).
The distinction between “true bugs” a la scientific usage and “Bugs,” the popular form is probably something the pedants should just accept. Present company included. A ‘Bug” is anything with A) the wrong number of legs*; B) inscrutability**; C) is unpleasant to have squished between one’s toes; pick any two. That’s my definition, YMMV.
*(two or four, in their natural state. [Amputees get credit for the number of limbs found in their species, out of pure sympathy. Who doesn’t still love a three-legged dog?] Anything else is the wrong answer.)
**(Inscrutability in this case means that my mammalian lower brain cannot naturally read the emotional state of an animal, either because there is no face to speak of, or the face just doesn’t convey emotions. This means I can’t predict at a glance whether the bug is going to bite or sting me. Or lay some eggs in my eyeballs while I sleep. Or inject me with some microorganism that will take over my brain [I’m lookin’ at you, cytomegalovirus].
Inscrutability by itself can be problematic. I personally don’t like reptiles, and inscrutability is a big part of why, but there are plenty of folks who swear that they can make an emotional connection with THEIR bearded dragon, or THEIR snake, or THEIR tortoise, you just have to get to know them. So, the jury is still out on reptiles.
There are also folks who will make the same claim about THEIR tarantula, or some such creature. Those people are wrong. That is all.)