Talk:Atypoidea

What is a burrow?

So from what I understand, the definition of a burrow is always underground. If a spider is making a home under a piece of bark, that's not a burrow. Types of burrows for more info. Merriam Webster would agree. If they are living under bark, they are merely living under bark. That would be a shelter of some kind, i.e. no burrowing was done. Leitmotiv (talk) 18:30, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree that a burrow has to be constructed, i.e. there has to be the act of "burrowing". However, "burrowed into the wood" gets 28,500 Google hits; other similar terms such as "burrowed into the bark" or "burrowed into the foliage" can also be found. There are also lots of images of "beetle burrows" online, most of which are in wood. "Burrowing beetles" usually means ground burrowing beetles, but, as here, can also mean wood boring beetles. So, no, I don't accept that "underground burrows" involves redundancy; it clarifies. Peter coxhead (talk) 14:36, 21 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A couple things. Google searches generally aren't indicative of anything and are typically exaggerated by Google itself. Direct sources are really what's important, and I imagine you are correct and we could find some directly referencing wood burrowing or foliage burrowing. The other point which should probably take all the weight here, on whether or not "subterranean" is needed, is context. Is this a wood burrowing spider? Is it a foliage burrowing spider? In both cases, it appears not to be. Generally, a burrow is in the ground, and unless their is some confusion in which the reader could be mislead, than I don't see the need for distinction. 999 times out of 1,000, burrows are in the ground, and this spider is no different. However if it was an exceptional spider, than I could see a need to state it burrows in bark, or burrows in foliage, otherwise it is, generally speaking, redundant. In other words, a reader will understand what a burrow is - the only clarification needed is if it's atypical. And this spider doesn't meet that criteria. Leitmotiv (talk) 18:58, 21 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]