mating

Etymology

adj

1. Fitting into or onto a corresponding part, as a matched plug and socket.

noun

1. (zoology) Pairing of organisms for copulation.
   The progeny of backcrosses and intercrosses will form some incrosses and some matings of other types. 1981, Henry Foster, The Mouse in Biomedical Research, page 96
2. (zoology) Sexual union; copulation.
   Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7

verb

1. present participle and gerund of mate