brumation

History and Etymology for brumation

Latin brūma “winter solstice, midwinter” + (hibern)ation

Note: Term introduced by the American zoologist Wilbur W. Mayhew (born 1920) in “Hibernation in the Horned Lizard Phrynosoma m’calli,” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, vol. 16, no. 1 (September, 1965), pp. 116: “ … it seems advisable to have one term to designate winter dormancy in heterotherms and another for such [in] ectotherms. Hibernation has been used to denote this condition in heterotherms particularly, so it seems best to retain this term for that group of vertebrates. Therefore, I propose the terms brumation (from bruma, L. winter) to indicate winter dormancy in ectothermic vertebrates that demonstrate physiological changes which are independent of body temperature.”