Aposematism - Mimicry

Mimicry

Aposematism is a sufficiently successful strategy that other organisms lacking the same secondary defence means may come to mimic the conspicuous markings of their genuinely aposematic counterparts. For example, the Aegeria moth is a mimic of the yellow jacket wasp; it resembles the wasp, but is not capable of stinging. A predator which would thus avoid the wasp would similarly avoid the Aegeria.

This form of mimicry, where the mimic lacks the defensive capabilities of its 'model', is known as Batesian mimicry, after Henry Walter Bates, a British naturalist who studied Amazonian butterflies in the second half of the 19th century. Batesian mimicry finds greatest success when the ratio of 'mimic' to 'mimicked' is low; otherwise, predators learn to recognise the imposters. Batesian mimics are known to adapt their mimicry to match the prevalence of aposematic organisms in their environment.

A second form of aposematism mimicry occurs when two organisms share the same antipredation defence and mimic each other, to the benefit of both species. This form of mimicry is known as Müllerian mimicry, after Fritz Müller, a German naturalist who studied the phenomenon in the Amazon in the late 19th century. For example, a yellow jacket wasp and a honeybee are Müllerian mimics; their similar colouring teaches predators that a striped pattern is the pattern of a stinging insect. Therefore, a predator who has come into contact with either a wasp or a honeybee will likely avoid both in the future.

There are other forms of mimicry not related to aposematism, though these two forms are among the best known and most studied.