Tonic immobility

[BloomingMarvellous]

I came across this little Beetle that was having a few problems upside down in the pond. I scooped it out on a dead leaf and left it to dry out. It was so still I thought it was dead, after fifteen minutes of pretending to be dead, it flew off.




I didn't know this behaviour had a name, but I do now.

I know Grass Snakes behave in this manner, anyone know what else displays this behaviour?

[Adam Cheeseman]

Robert de Niro in the film Sleepers I believe.

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by BloomingMarvellous

I came across this little Beetle that was having a few problems upside down in the pond. I scooped it out on a dead leaf and left it to dry out. It was so still I thought it was dead, after fifteen minutes of pretending to be dead, it flew off.




I didn't know this behaviour had a name, but I do now.

I know Grass Snakes behave in this manner, anyone know what else displays this behaviour?

Favourite spider trick. Also, I don't know if this is quite the same, I was sorting things out in a leafy part of the garden recently and I saw what I thought was a pile of dog poop. It didn't look quite right, so I backed off from this brown pile; an eye opened and I left the baby Thrush/blackbird be to it's thoughts. It really did look so... poopy, and was very still, You could have missed it. Question is, was it playing dead, or imitating something else.

[Paul mabbott]

I know it sounds silly but water beetles can drown - they are only able to carry a small amount of air for their underwater activity. Could this one have been trapped under water and then come to the surface?

Beetles in general are resilient and can survive quite long periods of immersion - many's the apparently dead beetle I've taken from water to examine later only find it 'coming back to life' after an hour or so!

[King Edward]

This looks like some kind of dung beetle, definitely not a water beetle. 15 minutes sounds like a long time to play dead - it was probably just drying off and recovering.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by King Edward

This looks like some kind of dung beetle, definitely not a water beetle. 15 minutes sounds like a long time to play dead - it was probably just drying off and recovering.

Yes, I was just going by the hindlegs on the thumbnail!
Makes it even more likely to be a 'partial' drowning!
PS: I've been reliably informed that it's the gin that makes you immobile, not the tonic.