Quite common in videogames, too.
A specific example would be the Carapace (armor) upgrades in Starcraft 2 (one faction, the Zerg, are basically insects).
Also sometimes used for (humanoid) armor crafted from shells (fantasy settings).
I think this is MUCH more prevalent in scifi/fantasy targeted at male audiences, and the data confirms it [1]
[1]: https://osf.io/g4xrt/#!