Blog Post 1 - A General Introduction to Mimicry in Animals

Many living things have evolved some very impressive and unique tactics to deceive predators and competition. Mimicry is one of these tactics. There have been many adverse definitions of mimicry.  In common usage, mimicry is a situation in which one organism resembles physical or behavioural traits of another and in turn gains a survival advantage (Endler, 1981.). Diving deeper, mimicry involves one organism (the mimic) which simulates signal properties of a second living organism (the model) which are perceived as signals of interest by a third living organism (the operator), such that the mimic gains in fitness as a result of the operator identifying it as an example of the model (Vane-Wright, 1980.).  




There are multiple types of mimicry as it embraces many diverse phenomena, from tactics for defence and foraging, to pollination and mating. Selection for these mimetic phenomena is very different in each case and it is important to distinguish among categories of trophic, interspecific mimicry (e.g. defensive, foraging and parasitic mimicry) and sexually selected, nontrophic, intraspecific mimicry (e.g. sexual mimicry) (Malcolm, 1990). Understanding a mimicry system requires a rather comprehensive knowledge of morphology, behaviour, ecology, and mutual relationships.


In this blog I will be focusing on defensive mimicry, aggressive mimicry and automimicry and discussing an example of each. Defensive mimicry is specially performed by animals that have numerous predators, so their survival rates depend on avoiding their predators (Malcicka, et al. 2015.). The first type of defensive mimicry I will discuss is Batesian mimicry, where a palatable/harmless organism mimics the aposematism traits of an unpalatable/harmful organism to be avoided by predators (Endler, 1981.). The second type of defensive mimicry I will discuss is Mullerian mimicry, where multiple unpalatable/harmful organisms mimic similar appearances for shared mutual benefits (Endler, 1981.). The next form of mimicry I will discuss is aggressive mimicry, a form of mimicry in which predatory organisms mimic similar signals of that of a harmless model which allows them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host (Jackson, et al. 2013.). The final form of mimicry I will discuss is automimicry which is where some members of a species form resemblance to other members of the same species for individual advantage/benefit (Svennungsen, et al. 2007).  


 
Mullerian Mimicry Example: On the top is a Viceroy Butterfly, on the bottom is a Monarch Butterfly. Both species of butterfly are unpalatable and have shared appearances/warning signals for mutual benefit.     Images by: D. Gordon, E. Robertson and D. Ramsey,  2009.

 




Batesian Mimicry Example: Above is the mimic, a harmless Milk Snake. Below is the model, a harmful Coral Snake. The Milk Snake mimics the bands and warning colours of the Coral snake to be avoided by predators.  Images by: Biologywise, 2019.  




Reference List:

Endler, J.A., 1981. An overview of the relationships between mimicry and crypsis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 16(1), pp.25-31. 

Jackson, R.R. and Cross, F.R., 2013. A cognitive perspective on aggressive mimicry. Journal of Zoology, 290(3), pp.161-171.

Malcicka, M., Bezemer, T.M., Visser, B., Bloemberg, M., Snart, C.J., Hardy, I.C. and Harvey, J.A., 2015. Multi-trait mimicry of ants by a parasitoid wasp. Scientific reports, 5, p.8043.

Malcolm, S.B., 1990. Mimicry: status of a classical evolutionary paradigm. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 5(2), pp.57-62.
     
Svennungsen, T.O. and Holen, Ø.H., 2007. The evolutionary stability of automimicry. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 274(1621), pp.2055-2063.

Vane-Wright, R.I., 1980. On the definition of mimicry. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 13(1), pp.1-6.


Comments

  1. Tasmin15 March 2019 at 15:04

    A nice start! What sort of mimicry would an orchid mantis show?

    ReplyDelete

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