heelwalker
heelwalker noun: any of the order Mantophasmatodea of carnivorous, wingless insects that superficially resemble a cross between praying mantises and phasmids.
Noun
heelwalker (plural heelwalkers)
- Any of the order Mantophasmatodea of carnivorous, wingless insects that superficially resemble a cross between praying mantises and phasmids.
- The gladiator heelwalker (Tyrannophasma gladiator) is a ferocious nocturnal predator. It uses both front and middle legs to grab and crush its spider and insect prey.2007, Naskrecki, Piotr, The smaller majority : the hidden world of the animals that dominate the tropics, page 247
- Heelwalkers possess a highly modified tarsal attachment system. All extant species lift the distalmost tarsomere permanently off the substrate and primarily use their euplantulae for locomotion.2024 October 25, “Diversity of attachment systems in heelwalkers (Mantophasmatodea) – highly specialized, but uniform”, in bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com
- Synonyms:
- gladiator, rock crawler
Synonyms of heelwalker
Forms of heelwalker
| plural | heelwalkers |
|---|
Origin of heelwalker
Compound of heel + walker, from the fact that these insects have a habit of walking with the tips of their feet held up in the air.
Questions about heelwalker
- What does heelwalker mean?
- Heelwalker means any of the order Mantophasmatodea of carnivorous, wingless insects that superficially resemble a cross between praying mantises and phasmids.
- What part of speech is heelwalker?
- Heelwalker is a noun.
- What is the plural of heelwalker?
- The plural of heelwalker is heelwalkers.
Words near heelwalker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: heelwalker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “heelwalker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heelwalker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.