stereotyped behavior

To find a partner, cicadas from this genus will practice "highly stereotyped" behavior in which "males call and females respond with wing flicks, but healthy males never signal with wing flicks. When females remain unmated much beyond the onset of sexual receptivity, their responses become exaggerated with louder, more consistent wing flicks and sometimes even whole-body motions that appear to draw the attention of chorusing males."

The snake takes advantage of the fish’s stereotyped behavior, by triggering it to its own ends: the hunter’s body-feint gets the fish to C-start right into the snake’s mouth.

“One stereotyped behavior that we often observed was a rat repeatedly licking the clear plastic walls of its operant chamber—a behavior that was sometimes uninterruptable,” said Aarde.

They were also more than five times as likely to show stereotyped behavior, the repetitive motions similar to the rocking or head-banging seen in some cases of autism and in orphanage-reared infants.

The peer-reared males were about three times more likely to engage in stereotyped behavior, compared with those raised by their mothers.