stick insect

noun

1. walking stick.

stick insect

noun

1. Also called (US and Canadian): walking stick. any of various mostly tropical insects of the family Phasmidae that have an elongated cylindrical body and long legs and resemble twigs: order Phasmida See also leaf insect

Word History and Origins

Origin of stick insect¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

The feisty Lord Howe Island stick insect crawling on the gloved hand of Kyle Kassel, a keeper at the San Diego Zoo, had no idea that he shouldn’t exist.

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Gompert and colleagues report evidence of repeatable evolution in populations of stick insects in the May 24, 2024, online edition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's journal Science Advances.

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The answer to this long-standing question may be one step closer thanks to research on the crawly living twigs known as stick insects.

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It is only because of this quirk in their nature that viable stick insect babies can hatch from the eggs.

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The experiments involved the researchers keeping the body of the stick insects fixed, and electrically stimulating one out of the three leg muscles to produce walking-like movements.

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