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

The team examined three decades of data on the frequency of cryptic color-pattern morphs in the stick insect species Timema cristinae in ten naturally replicate populations in California.

From Science Daily • May 24, 2024

The Lord Howe Island stick insect, which is from an island off Australia and was thought to have been extinct for decades.

From New York Times • Apr. 27, 2022

Charlie, a green bean stick insect, showed its true colours after it shed its skin at home in Suffolk to reveal the bright green body of a female and brown wings of a male.

From BBC • Feb. 16, 2022

In 1883, one of the latter’s early editors, the entomologist and palaeontologist Samuel Hubbard Scudder, published a description of a giant fossil stick insect discovered in coal deposits in France by another entomologist, Charles Brongniart.

From Nature • Nov. 4, 2019

“Hello, stick insect, my name is Roz. You are very well camouflaged.”

From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown