estivate


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estivate

also

aestivate

(ĕs′tə-vāt′)
intr.v. esti·vated, esti·vating, esti·vates
Zoology To be in a dormant or torpid state during a hot dry period, such as the summer months.
The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Among these odd species are the welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis, see box), a strange gymnosperm with indefinitely growing leaves that is a genuine living fossil, and the shrub Myrothamnus flabellifolius, the only mainland African species of its genus and of he family Myrothamnaceae--it contains only one other species, from the arid regions of Madagascar--which estivates (becomes dormant in the summer) by drying its leaves out, folding them like a fan, and turning black and brittle.
2 Life in hot deserts and subdeserts
guttata has evolved flexible behavioral and physiological repertoires that allow them to estivate within, or disperse among, different habitats.
Effects of weather conditions and drought on activity of spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata) in a Southwestern Michigan Wetland
If temperature exceeds 80[degrees]F, hamsters estivate and become very difficult to rouse.
Chapter 10: Hamsters and gerbils
estivate: A dormant state during the heat of the summer.
Glossary
Therefore, we suspect that frogs were not infested with larval mites in the vicinity of ponds in which they reproduce, but were infested in the shelters where they estivate during the dry season.
The larval mite Endotrombicula pillersi (Acarina: Trombiculidae) as a species-specific parasite of a West African savannah frog (Phrynobatrachus francisci)

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