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Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates , who worked on butterflies in the rainforests of Brazil.
Comparison of Batesian and Müllerian mimicry, illustrated with a hoverfly, a wasp and a bee. In Müllerian mimicry, two or more species have similar warning or aposematic signals and both share genuine anti-predation attributes (e.g. being unpalatable), as first described in Heliconius butterflies. [53] This type of mimicry is unique in ...
A familiar example is the resemblance of harmless hoverflies (which have no sting) to bees. Müllerian mimicry, where two or more distasteful or dangerous animal species resemble each other. This is most common among insects such as wasps and bees (hymenoptera). Batesian mimicry was first described by the pioneering naturalist Henry W. Bates ...
Chapter 13 Protective and Aggressive Mimicry. Poulton gives examples of mimicry in other insect groups, remarking the "very imperfect" resemblance of bee hawk-moths to bees, which totally failed to "impose on" a lizard, but noting that the much more convincing mimicry of the hornet clearwing moth was treated with extreme caution by an ...
Batesian mimicry, named for the 19th century naturalist Henry Walter Bates who first noted the effect in 1861, "provides numerous excellent examples of natural selection" [16] at work. The evolutionary entomologist James Mallet noted that mimicry was "arguably the oldest Darwinian theory not attributable to Darwin."
However, Gregory Bateson criticized this view in 1892 by pointing out that the Volucella example fits much better as an instance of protective mimicry, now commonly known as Batesian mimicry. [7] By appearing as bees, palatable flies gain protection from predators that recognize bees as noxious and therefore unappetizing. [7]
Mimicry is a form of defense which describes when a species resembles another recognized by natural enemies, giving it protection against predators. [2] The resemblance among mimics does not denote common ancestry. Mimicry works if and only if predators are able to learn from eating distasteful species.
Such a mimicry complex is referred to as Batesian and is most commonly known by the mimicry by the limenitidine viceroy butterfly of the inedible danaine monarch. Later research has discovered that the viceroy is, in fact more toxic than the monarch and this resemblance should be considered as a case of Müllerian mimicry. [16]