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Science Memes @mander.xyz

fossilesque @mander.xyz

2w ago

feral naming

77 comments

- Man, what the fuck did the roly polys do the the Netherlands?!
  
  They piss in our beds! grrr
  
  https://thimsternisse.com/healing-magic/
  Apparently they fed them to kids as a cure for wetting the bed.
  
  i think they might have pissed in some beds
- Pissebed

What's with all these weird names for a pill bug.
- It's called a roly-poly and I will tolerate no disagreement, good day to you
  
  They roly and they poly. No better names exist.
  
  I'll accept carpet shrimp.
  
  Re: your username: Is a Replicant Batty Coda just a normal Batty Coda? He's already a cyborg with crappy/ intermittent reception.
  
  nuh-uh
  
  Roly-poly is correct, but I'll also accept potato bug.
- This is the first time I've heard anyone call them anything other than a woodlouse
  
  You must be referring to the Woodlouse Hunter which hunts... *checks notes ...Granny Grunters.
  
  I only ever called them woodlouses when I learned that name as a teenager because everyone here always called them "roly-polies" or "potato bugs."
- Do you mean the bean bug?
  
  No, I mean a sow bug.

Their family name is Armadillidae (arm-a-dill-a-dee) which also just sounds silly
- Aww, tiny armadillos!
- Armadillidae
  Not to be confused with Armadillidiidae.
  🙃

It's a Roly Poly btw.

Probably the cutest insect, and they do us no harm. Unshocking they have a collection of amusing names.
- Apparently, they're not actually insects, but rather crustaceans.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodlouse
  
  Crustaceans are basically ocean insects, fite me
  
  That's actually not shocking either! Nice, thanks for the info :)
- Ladybugs are even cuter, but do not fare as well.
  
  This would have made the Spanish version of A Bugs Life interesting.

It's because they roll up into a cute little ball and it tickles us in a way nothing else does

Norwegian, a loved one goes by many names..
Melkedyr: Milk bugs
Benkebitere: Bench biters
Kaffetroll: Coffee trolls
Munkebiller: Monk beetles
Kaffelus: Coffee lice
Munkelus: Monk lice
Moldokser: Mold oxen
Kaffedyr: Coffee bugs
Tusselus: Goblin lice
Paddelus: Toad lice
Potetroll: Potato trolls
- note to self: don't buy coffee in Norway
- Mold oxen
  Because of the antennae! That's adorable.

This is a weird question but everyone else could smell these, right? Like a weird bitter, musty smell. That post about people smelling ants a while back made me wonder what other bugs not all people smell.
- They excrete ammonia through their exoskeleton because they don't actually pee! I've only noticed a smell from them when they're in large groups. They may be a bit smelly, and a lot of people mislabel them as insects, but they're actually terrestrial isopods and are related to crabs and shrimps!
  
  Welp, that explains why the Netherlands calls these bugs "bedpissers"
- Yeah they smell like stinky wood/almonds to me.
  
  stinky wood/almonds
  Isn't almonds also the scent reported by those genetically-equipped to smell cyanide?
- Not me! Do you smell ants? I think it’s a genetic trait.
  
  Certain ants are pretty distinct. Thatch ants spray formic acid as a defense, and will have a sour smell (and taste, or so I've been told). Odoriferous house ants are named so for obvious reason, and smell (to me) like pen ink. Assuming they taste terrible, but I dunno anyone who's tasted one.
  Also, for what it's worth, my entomologist father refers to the thread's subject as "sow bugs", so that's how I know them, but pill bugs and rolly polly are common here.
  
  I’ve never noticed an ant smell, if I had to guess I’d assume it’s some different chemical I’m picking up on from the pill bugs.
- Doesn't ring a bell. Earwigs have a distinct smell, though.

DOODLE BUGS!
- I'm my head a doodle bug is more like a beetle with long segmented legs that kind of bobs around as it doodles along.
  
  Yeah, we all have our own tags for critters. Went looking online for doodle bugs and most all of the links pointed to ant lions. We called those sand diggers when I was a kid.

Nice-o-pod
- They’re good lil guys

Interesting. Where I live this is what we call a potato bug
- We had those where I grew up to, our chickens would go absolutely bonkers when we would feed them one. One of them actually learned to come to me when I called because she knew it meant delicious bugs

Me in Australia: Now that's a real Butchy boy.
- Me in Australia: that's a slater

Forbidden boba

I was taught they were called pill bugs. Although I knew them as also roly polys. My mother called them pill bugs, the other kids called them roly polys.
She told me it was an east coast versus west coast name and clearly is more "every group of people had decided they wanted to name this thing themselves" XD

My MIL calls them Brick Beetles…cause every time you lift a brick up there one under it. Partner was 30 before she found out that’s not their real name.

I mean I have a pair of aquatic sowbugs I've been keeping in an empty yogurt cup. They look like regular sowbugs but they're underwater, hence aquatic sowbug.

hey Smooth Randy

It does have a hard back

It is called a pissebed in Dutch...
Yet where i live we call them verkskes ( little piggies )

I call them isopods but that's only because I started keeping them as pets Rn I have some dairy cow isopods

Swedish: Gråsugga = gray sow.

I was 30+ before I knew not everyone called them slaters

They're proper pokemons, they have shiny version
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