Wizzie Brown, a program specialist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and our go-to insect expert, is helping answer questions from kids about bugs.
Is a bug the same thing as an insect?
All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs, Brown says.
“There is a group or an order of insects, the order Hemiptera, that are called the true bugs,” she said. “And those are going to have a certain set of characteristics that make them fall into that classification of Hemiptera. And that is essentially, they have piercing sucking mouth parts, they have an incomplete life cycle.”
Stink bugs, leaf-footed bugs and bed bugs are all true bugs, for example. But lightningbugs are not – they’re a type of beetle.
“If you’re spelling it, if it is going to be [an] actual bug, then stink is one word and bug is another word, so those are two separate words. But lightningbug is going to be all one big word,” Brown said. “And that is how, when we’re writing, we tell if something is a true bug or not.”
So if you know the characteristics that you’re looking for and know something is in the order Hemiptera, you can call it a bug, Brown says. But otherwise, if you want to be accurate, you should call them insects.
» MORE: Kids want to know: Why should we care about bugs?
Can I pick one up?
Maybe, Brown says.
“If you know that it’s not going to do anything to harm you, then I say, sure, pick it up,” she said – but consider wearing gloves in case it tries to bite or sting you.
Brown says that, when talking about things in the wild, she recommends erring on the side of caution if you don’t know what you’re messing with.
“You have to remember that you are much larger than they are, so they are going to more afraid of you than you are of them typically, and that might lead them to try to defend themselves,” she said. “So, it might be best to look and observe.”
Do you have a bug question for Wizzie Brown? Drop us a line, and we’ll pass it along.
