Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous chiefly tropical, often wingless insects of the order Phasmida (or Phasmatodea), having elongated bodies that resembles twigs or leaves, and including the walking sticks and the leaf insects.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A member of the orthopterous family Phasmidæ.
- Having the characters of or belonging to the family Phasmidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any orthopterous insect of the family
Phasmidæ , as a leaf insect or a stick insect.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology Any
insect of the order Phasmida; the leaf insects andwalking sticks - noun nematology Either of the two
caudal chemoreceptors in somenematodes
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun large cylindrical or flattened mostly tropical insects with long strong legs that feed on plants; walking sticks and leaf insects
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Specimens of Lord Howe Island phasmid Dryococoelus australis (Ex), a large flightless phasmatid thought to be extinct on Lord Howe Island, is known to occur still on Ball's Pyramid.
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The oldest phasmid fossils they go back in Baltic amber to the Tertiary—i.e., about 50 million years ago look identical to present-day species, showing that no gradations have occurred.
Behe and bugs: Genesis of a Creationist canard? - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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The oldest phasmid fossils they go back in Baltic amber to the Tertiary—i.e., about 50 million years ago look identical to present-day species, showing that no gradations have occurred.
Behe and bugs: Genesis of a Creationist canard? - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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Thanks to Oliver Zompro and Erich Tilgner, two entomologists with expertise on Phasmids and allied groups and their taxonomy and evolution, for their patient explanations and copious references; to the Phasmid Study Group for allowing me to use some of their phasmid photographs; to Reed for setting up the Geologic Time Scale page and PT crew members for comments, suggestions, and for refreshing my Latin.
Behe and bugs: Genesis of a Creationist canard? - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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The quote about the uncertainty with phasmid taxonomy is misleading because most of the controversy about this group has to do with its subdivisions and not its affinities with other orders.
Behe and bugs: Genesis of a Creationist canard? - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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Although many are amazing in their mimicry, others simply have elongated, cryptic shapes and colors, but they do not closely resemble leaves and twigs, and are rather similar to many other non-phasmid insects see for instance some of the phasmid species in the picture below.
Behe and bugs: Genesis of a Creationist canard? - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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I am not aware of any specific work on bona fide leaf- or stick-like insects, but a 1993 paper on two differently colored forms of the phasmid Timema cristinae, which are more or less cryptic depending on the vegetation they reside on, clearly showed differential predation against the less cryptic morph 3.
Behe and bugs: Genesis of a Creationist canard? - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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Went to Accipiter and found an excellent shadow box of a large malaysian phasmid stick insect I was thinking about using for photographs for Phasmatodea, and a really nice shadow box of a scorpion specimen.
stick, shopping, solaris, s'DJ badger 2004
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Might look for a phasmid stick insect for a mascot/cover model for Phasmatodea, which is my and aklikins's Chapman Stick duo.
the state of the scorpion address badger 2004
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If you are not business intelligence strategy this cyprinid in your optimization mandatary, the langsyne you are carinate at is bisulcate of phasmid aldomet.
Rational Review 2009
reesetee commented on the word phasmid
Excellent word, defingleez!
February 9, 2007