thanatosis

Zoobiquityを読んでいます。期待以上の面白い内容で、ノンフィクションの本にしては興味深い単語も幾つも出て来ます。
Female robberflies sometimes employ a similar tactic to thwart unwanted sexual advances. Writes entomologist Goran Arnqvist, "If grasped by a male, they exhibit thanatosis (playing dead).
Once the female cease to move the male apparently no longer recognizes the lifeless female as a potential partner, loses interest and so releases the female." Whether or how this insect rape-prevention strategy has implication for human beings is unclear, but Arnqvist posits that since feigning death is so widespread in the insect world, females may have adapted this strategy to protect themselves from unwanted copulations.
"thanatosis" は学術用語なのでしょうか、意味はカッコ書きで補足されていますが一応辞書も見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: (of an animal) the ability to fake death in order to evade a predator or any other unwelcome intrusion
日本語では狸寝入りと言う言葉がありますが、実際に狸も "exhibit thanatosis" があるのでしょうね。