Batesian mimicry

Perhaps the sharpest contrast here is with aggressive mimicry where a predator or parasite mimics a harmless species, avoiding detection and improving its foraging success.

The predatory species mediating indirect interactions between the mimic and the model is variously known as the [signal] receiver, dupe or operator.

By parasitising the honest warning signal of the model, the Batesian mimic gains an advantage, without having to go to the expense of arming itself.

If impostors appear in high numbers, positive experiences with the mimic may result in the model being treated as harmless.

Some mimetic populations have evolved multiple forms (polymorphism), enabling them to mimic several different models and thereby to gain greater protection.

Henry Walter Bates (1825–1892) was an English explorer-naturalist who surveyed the Amazon rainforest with Alfred Russel Wallace in 1848.

Bates's field research included collecting almost a hundred species of butterflies from the families Ithomiinae and Heliconiinae, as well as thousands of other insects specimens.

He noted that some species showed very striking coloration and flew in a leisurely manner, almost as if taunting predators to eat them.

He extended that logic to forms that closely resembled such protected species and mimicked their warning coloration but not their toxicity.

[1][2] This naturalistic explanation fitted well with the recent account of evolution by Wallace and Charles Darwin, as outlined in his famous 1859 book The Origin of Species.

Because the Darwinian explanation required no supernatural forces, it met with considerable criticism from anti-evolutionists, both in academic circles and in the broader social realm.

Others have developed chemical defences such as the deadly toxins of certain snakes and wasps, or the noxious scent of the skunk.

[4] In Batesian mimicry, the mimic effectively copies the coloration of an aposematic animal, known as the model, to deceive predators into behaving as if it were distasteful.

[7] However, in areas where the model is scarce or locally extinct, mimics are driven to accurate aposematic coloration.

[11] An example would be the robber fly Mallophora bomboides, which is a Batesian mimic of its bumblebee model and prey, B. americanorum (now more commonly known as Bombus pensylvanicus), which is noxious to predators due to its sting.

[3] By contrast, a leaf-mimicking plant, the chameleon vine, employs Batesian mimicry by adapting its leaf shape and colour to match that of its host to deter herbivores from eating its edible leaves.

Equivalent to Batesian mimicry within a single species, it occurs when there is a palatability spectrum within a population of harmful prey.

[32] Some potential prey are unpalatable to bats, and produce an ultrasonic aposematic signal, the auditory equivalent of warning coloration.