History and Definition of Death Feigning

This chapter begins with an overview of references to death-feigning behavior in media—ranging from literature and performing arts to politics. It then introduces Darwin’s thoughts on the subject and Fabre’s pioneering experiments using beetles, with a historical overview of research on death feigning. Next, I examine the definition of death feigning, which has long been a source of confusion. Based on this background, I propose a novel and clear definition of death feigning. In this new framework, a distinction is made between various types of immobility observed across taxa—specifically between “freezing,” “tonic immobility,” and “death feigning.” A table is provided to clearly differentiate these terms, along with an explanation of the contexts in which each is used. I then present five leading hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the adaptive significance of death feigning. In addition, I discuss studies that have addressed death feigning in the context of evolutionary ecology, particularly from the perspective of fitness. Finally, I explain the background that led me to this proposal. I explore when, in what situations, and under what conditions insects engage in death feigning—addressing the classic “5W1H” (who, what, when, where, why, and how) of this intriguing behavior.