Habit is equivalent to habitus in some applications in biology; the term refers variously to aspects of behaviour or structure, as follows:
In zoology, habit usually refers to aspects of more or less predictablebehaviour, instinctive or otherwise, though it also has broader application. Habitus refers to the characteristic form or morphology of a species.
In botanyhabit is the characteristic form in which a given species of plant grows.
Behavior
In zoology, habit usually refers to a specific behavior pattern, either adopted, learned, pathological, innate, or directly related to physiology. For example:
...the was in the habit of springing upon the in order to gain admission...
The brittlestar has the habit of breaking off arms as a means of defense.
Mode of life is a concept related to habit, and it sometimes is referred to as the habit of an animal. It may refer to the locomotor capabilities, as in ", feeding behaviour and mechanisms, nutrition mode, type of habitat, period of activity, types of ecological interaction, etc. The habits of plants and animals often change in response to changes in their environment. For example: if a species develops a disease or there is a drastic change of habitat or local climate, or it is removed to a different region, then the normal habits may change. Such changes may be either, or adaptive.
Plants may be woody or herbaceous. The main types of woody plants are trees, shrubs and lianas. Climbing plants can be woody or herbaceous. Plants can also be categorized in terms of their habit as subshrubs, cushion plants and succulents. There is some overlap between the classifications of plants according to their habit and their life-form. Other terms in biology refer similarly to various taxa; for example:
Since the distinction between the concepts – mode of behavior and morphological form – are significant in zoology, the term habitus is used to describe form as distinct from behaviour. The term habitus also occurs in botanical texts, but there it is used almost interchangeably with habit, because plant behaviour generally does not correspond closely to the concept of habits in the zoological sense.
