death-feigning

A death-feigning grass snake stays in character, not flopping back to its original position after it is turned over.

Boing Boing: October 29, 2006 - November 4, 2006 Archives 2006

At the Saint Louis Zoo Insectarium, check out the desertlike Dune Buggies environment, home to death-feigning beetles (stlzoo. org).

Family:Creepy Crawlers 2007

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of "death-feigning," commonly seen in coleopterous insects, and in many spiders.

The Naturalist in La Plata 1881

Lubbock's summary of degeneration in, 156; homing sense in the, 197; death-feigning in the, 212.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

This has greatly puzzled me, since, if death-feigning is simply a cunning habit, the animal could not suffer itself to be mutilated without wincing.

The Naturalist in La Plata 1881

The death-feigning instinct is possessed in a very marked degree by the spotted tinamou or common partridge of the pampas (Nothura maculosa).

The Naturalist in La Plata 1881

DYTICUS MARGINALIS, auditory rods of, 30; death-feigning in a fresh-water annelid when approached by, 204.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

In the lower animals death-feigning is undoubtedly instinctive; yet the recognition of danger, which sets in motion the phenomena of letisimulation, is undoubtedly due, primarily, to intelligent ideation in a vast majority of animals.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

In this case death-feigning seems absolutely successful as far as protection is concerned; for surely no grass-eating animal would touch this withered stuff, especially if there were other greens in the neighborhood.

The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

Passing over venomous snakes, skunks, and a few other species in which the presence of danger excites only anger, fear has a powerful, and in some cases a disabling, effect on animals; and it is this paralyzing effect of fear on which the death-feigning instinct, found only in a few widely-separated species, has probably been built up by the slow cumulative process of natural selection.

The Naturalist in La Plata 1881