stick insect

American  

noun

1. walking stick.

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stick insect British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of stick insect

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

To address this gap, Patrik Nosil, an evolutionary biologist with France’s national research agency CNRS, and colleagues studied populations of the stick insect Timema cristinae.

From Science Magazine • May 23, 2024

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

From Science Daily • Oct. 10, 2023

A pet stick insect surprised its owner when she noticed it was half male and half female - known as a gynandromorph.

From BBC • Feb. 16, 2022

He and his colleagues described the first male Acanthoxyla, a genus of stick insect from New Zealand that was thought to be exclusively female, from a specimen found on a car in Cornwall, England.

From New York Times • Dec. 1, 2020

She’d gotten the idea from the stick insect, but Roz quickly realized that camouflaging herself as a twig was out of the question.

From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown