Taxis

This article is about the behavioural response. For the vehicle, see Taxi. For German nobility, see Thurn und Taxis. For other uses, see Taxi (disambiguation) and Taxonomy.

A taxis (from Ancient Greek τάξις (táxis) 'arrangement, order';[1] pl.: taxes /ˈtæksiːz/)[2][3][4] is the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Taxes are innate behavioural responses. A taxis differs from a tropism (turning response, often growth towards or away from a stimulus) in that in the case of taxis, the organism has motility and demonstrates guided movement towards or away from the stimulus source.[5][6] It is sometimes distinguished from a kinesis, a non-directional change in activity in response to a stimulus.

  1. ^ Henry George Liddell; Robert Scott (1940). "τάξις". A Greek–English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. ^ "taxis" – via The Free Dictionary.
  3. ^ "taxis". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
  4. ^ "taxis". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
  5. ^ Kendeigh, S. C. (1961). Animal Ecology. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. pp. 468 pp.
  6. ^ Dusenbery, David B. (2009). Living at Micro Scale, Ch. 14. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts ISBN 978-0-674-03116-6.