The planet is inhabited by thousands of species of living beings, forced to fight for their existence every day. Herbivores eat plants, and predators look for weaker animals. In this frantic race, everyone is forced to adapt. He who cannot defend himself with teeth and claws takes a different, more cunning path. Mimicry in animals is considered an effective way to avoid becoming another’s lunch – there are quite a few examples of this.
What is it?
The word “mimicry” appeared in the Russian language by borrowing the Greek mimikos, meaning “imitative” in translation. Mimicry is usually understood as the imitative similarity in shape and color of one organism with another, or with the environment. In other words, this is the external similarity of a less protected animal with a more protected one, or merging with the environment. The simplest example of mimicry is the green coloration of insects.
However, predatory animals also use mimicry in order to be able to sneak up on their prey unnoticed. In any case, mimicry acts as a way of adaptation to the surrounding world, the purpose of which is considered to be to prolong life and reproduce more offspring.
A living organism (usually less protected) that copies the appearance of another is called an imitator. The one whose appearance is copied is called a “model”. The one who is being deceived in this way is called an operator.
Features of mimicry
Imitating shape and color has become a fairly effective means of protection, but even this option does not always pay off. For an example of mimicry to be effective, certain conditions must be met.
- The predator (operator) must have the ability to recognize and remember animals that are not suitable for food (tasteless, dangerous or difficult to catch).
- The operator must be stupid enough not to notice the imitation and mistake the simulator for the model. In the case of camouflage to the environment, the operator should not notice the victim.
According to current theory, the connection between the simulator and the model is established over time.
Types of formation of mimicry
In nature, there are several types of mimicry, differing from each other in their basic principles.
Camouflage (camouflage) is an example of mimicry, in which the imitator copies the natural background (leaves, stones, tree branches). The model in this case is an inanimate object, so it does not react to the imitator at all.
Müllerian mimicry is a term used to describe the convergence of external characteristics of two protected species. Such a change may seem unjustified, but only at first glance. This is explained by the peculiarity of the behavior of predators. The ability to identify animals unsuitable for food comes not at the genetic level, but with experience. Thus, to obtain information, the predator is forced to taste the prey. In this case, a certain percentage of individuals of the species being eaten is under attack. If two protected species have similar external characteristics, the number of victims is distributed among the 2 species (that is, over a larger number of individuals).
Camouflage (color mimicry)
There are many examples of color mimicry in nature.
Butterfly caterpillars are constantly at risk of being eaten, so without good camouflage their population would be at risk. Constantly being on the leaves and eating them, the caterpillars are in maximum safety, since in the process of evolution they acquired a green body color. Green-colored grasshoppers manage to avoid attacks with the same effect—an example of mimicry in this case is also typical.
In addition to insects, other animals whose habitat is the dense foliage of trees and shrubs can also acquire a green color. Green parrots, snakes, lizards, frogs and other inhabitants are often found in mangrove forests.
Animals, birds and insects that spend a lot of time on the ground or between trees have acquired a variegated brownish color. Beetles and spiders are almost indistinguishable on tree bark. Woodcocks, snipes, great snipes, and black grouse can easily hide among dry grass and fallen leaves - at the slightest danger, they take a motionless position and merge with surrounding objects. The steppe bird avdotka lies on the ground and stretches its neck - in this position it is extremely difficult to distinguish it from clay and mud. You won’t even be able to see the bittern stretched out among the feather grass.
Animals living in temperate latitudes change their outfit twice a year for effective camouflage. Hares, arctic foxes, and weasels are white in winter, and in the spring after molting they turn gray and brown.
The chameleon is considered the real record holder in this regard. It instantly adapts to its surrounding background and takes on a suitable color.
Predator camouflage
Color mimicry (simply camouflage) is used not only by unprotected animal species, but also by predators. Their special colors help them sneak up on their prey unnoticed. At the same time, the coloring pattern of the predator completely depends on its habitat. The play of light and shadow makes tigers' vertical stripes almost invisible as they sneak through the grass.
The python, with its mosaic coloring, can quietly and unnoticed sneak up on prey in the greenery, illuminated by the glare of the sun.
An example of this type of mimicry was the white owl living in the tundra. It is distinguished by its dazzling white plumage, which is difficult to notice among the snow. With the help of such a trick, the bird takes its prey by surprise.
Shape mimicry: examples
In addition to imitating color, many animals have ideally mastered the ability to imitate the shape of an object. Stick insects have achieved unique results in this matter. They not only have a characteristic brown color, but also have an elongated body shape. Not a single bird will notice a stick insect frozen on a branch.
The kalimma butterfly, which lives in the tropics, has a brownish coloration on the underside of its wings. When she sits down and folds her wings, she becomes exactly like a dry leaf. There is also an orthoptera insect in nature, called the “wandering leaf”. This comparison is not an accident; the body and legs of the insect have a striking resemblance to a green leaf.
The underwater world has its own geniuses of camouflage. The Black Sea is home to needle fish, whose habitat is considered to be thickets of the marine plant Zostera. The needlefish has the gift of camouflage, which makes it practically indistinguishable from underwater vegetation. Another fish that deserves attention is the rag fish, which has a body shape that closely resembles a rag. Hiding in algae, this sea creature becomes almost invisible.
Mimicry of color
Many insects and animals that are poisonous or unsuitable for food have bright warning colors. Such poisonous caterpillars, beetles, and frogs are visible from afar due to their bright red, orange or yellow colors. Having tried such a prey once, a bird or a predatory animal will not repeat the mistake again. This is actively used by many other animals that are not protected from predator attacks.
A typical example of mimicry is the appearance of harmless flies, which are extremely similar to bumblebees or wasps.
In the tropical forests of America there are beautiful bright butterflies belonging to the heliconid family. Birds do not attack them, as these insects have an extremely unpleasant smell and taste. In the same forests there are other butterflies, very similar to them, but already ordinary; birds also avoid them.
Sawfly larvae with bright spots on their bodies and ladybugs are capable of secreting a toxic liquid. This is precisely the reason why cuculia moths began to copy this color, although they do not have any means of protection.
The familiar cuckoo is very similar to the sparrowhawk, which the bird actively uses. Appearing near the nests of smaller birds, it scares them and, taking advantage of the confusion, lays eggs in other people's nests.
Sound mimicry
This method is used to intimidate the enemy and deter him from attacking. In this case, the same principle is used as in the examples of mimicry of color and shape. Protected animals terrify the enemy with hissing, barking, roaring and other threatening sounds. Some unprotected animals actively take advantage of this.
An example of mimicry is the behavior of the burrowing owl. At a moment of danger, he imitates the hiss of a snake, thereby forcing the enemy to retreat.
Mimicry in plants
The ability to imitate is found not only in animals and insects, but also in plants. Most often, an example of mimicry in plants in this case is expressed in the presence of certain parts of the plant that are characteristic of other species.
Thus, many animals are familiar with stinging nettle, which burns strongly when touched. Animals will not eat such a plant. The dead nettle has learned to masterfully resemble the stinging nettle, but it does not have such dangerous hairs.
Another striking example is rafflesia (the largest flower on earth). Its smell is extremely unpleasant (the smell of rotten meat), but this is what attracts a large number of flies who want to lay larvae in the decomposed flesh. This trick helps rafflesia to be pollinated by insects.
Predator imitation
This technique is often used by insects whose colors contain aggressive shapes and colors. Unlike those species that imitate the coloring of inedible animals, these declare themselves to be predators. Thus, some butterflies have two black spots on the spread of their wings. At the slightest danger, the insect opens its wings and becomes very similar to the eyes of an owl or other birds of prey.
The examples of mimicry mentioned above are only a small part of all those found in nature. It is these features that allow animals and plants to adapt to the environment and preserve their lives and reproduce for as long as possible.
MIMICRY
the imitative resemblance of some animals, mainly insects, to other species, providing protection from enemies. It is difficult to draw a clear boundary between it and a protective color or form. In its narrowest sense, mimicry is the imitation by a species, defenseless against some predators, of the appearance of a species avoided by these potential enemies due to inedibility or the presence of special means of defense. For example, the butterfly Limenitis archippus imitates the butterfly Danaus plexippus, which is not eaten by birds because it tastes unpleasant. However, several other types of protective adaptations can be called mimicry in relation to insects. For example, a stick insect looks like an “inanimate” thin twig. The pattern on the wings of many butterflies makes them almost indistinguishable against the background of tree bark, mosses or lichens. Strictly speaking, this is a protective coloring, but there is a clear protective imitation of other objects, i.e., in a broad sense, mimicry.
Forms of mimicry. There are three main types of mimicry - apathetic, sematic and epigamic.
Apathetic mimicry is the resemblance of a species to an object in the natural environment - animal, plant or mineral origin. Due to the diversity of such objects, this type of mimicry falls into many smaller categories. Sematic (preventive) mimicry is the imitation in shape and color of a species avoided by predators due to the presence of special means of defense or an unpleasant taste. It is found in larvae, nymphs, adults and possibly even pupae. Epigamic mimicry, or coloration, can be observed in sexually dimorphic species. An inedible animal is imitated either by males or females. In this case, females sometimes imitate several differently colored species that are found either in a given area in different seasons, or in different parts of the range of the imitating species. Darwin considered this type of mimicry to be the result of sexual selection, in which the defenseless form becomes more and more similar to the protected one in the process of destruction of less perfect imitators by natural enemies. Those who manage to more accurately copy someone else's appearance survive thanks to this similarity and give birth to offspring. Ratio of numbers of copied and copying species. An inedible form copied by another species must obviously be so abundant that natural enemies very quickly (after the first one or two attempts to feast on individuals of the corresponding appearance) learn to avoid it. If there are more imitators than originals, such training will naturally be delayed, and both the original and the copy will have to suffer from this. As a rule, the number of copied individuals is many times higher than that of copying individuals, although there may be rare exceptions, for example, when development conditions for the former are unfavorable, while for the latter they are close to ideal.
Examples of mimicry. Daytime butterflies. In North America, the most striking example of mimicry is the imitation of the butterfly Limenitis archippus (its English name is viceroy, viceroy) of another butterfly - Danaus plexippus (this large, beautiful butterfly is called the monarch). They are very similar in color, although the imitation is somewhat smaller than the original and has an “extra” black arc on the hind wings. This mimicry is limited to adults (adults), and the caterpillars of the two species are completely different. The “original” has caterpillars with a bright black-yellow-green pattern, which is boldly displayed to birds and other predators. The larvae of the imitator species, on the contrary, are inconspicuous, speckled, and look like bird droppings. Thus, the adult stage here serves as an example of mimicry in the narrow sense of the word, and the caterpillar shows protective coloration.
Mimicry is widespread in many regions of Southeast Asia and Australia. Among the butterflies living here, Danaids and many species of swallowtails have an unpleasant taste for birds and other predators. Their appearance is, as far as possible, copied by completely edible species of swallowtails and butterflies of other families. Moreover, sometimes sailboats and Danaids, protected from enemies, copy each other’s appearance no less skillfully than their defenseless imitators do. A similar situation is observed in the tropics of America and Africa. One of the classic examples of mimicry is the African butterfly Hypolimmas misippus, which, depending on the geographical area, imitates different species of Danaids and, thus, itself is represented by externally different forms. Night butterflies. Most of the literature on mimicry describes it using the example of representatives of the order Lepidoptera, but excellent examples of imitation are also known among other groups of insects and other animals. The caterpillars of one of the South American species of hawk moths look extremely unremarkable in a calm state, however, if they are disturbed, they rear up and arch their body, inflating its front end. The result is a complete illusion of a snake's head. For greater authenticity, the caterpillars slowly sway from side to side. Spiders. As you know, spiders are the worst enemies of insects. However, the spider Synemosina antidae is so similar to an ant that only by looking closely can one recognize the mimicry. On the other hand, some ants and other insects at certain stages of their development resemble spiders in appearance and habits. Bees and wasps. These insects serve as favorite role models. Their appearance and behavior are copied by many types of flies. Some of the imitators not only use wasp coloring, but when caught, they pretend that they are going to sting and buzz almost the same way as the “originals”. Many species of moths from several families also resemble bees and wasps - in flight or at rest. Beetles. Thousands of insect species imitate animal excrement in their appearance. Many beetles resort to this form of mimicry, which complement their resemblance to animal feces by pretending to be dead when they sense danger. Other beetles resemble plant seeds in their dormant state. Stick insects. The most amazing imitators include representatives of the order of stick insects, or ghost insects. At rest, these insects are almost indistinguishable from thin twigs. At the first appearance of danger, they freeze, but when the fear passes, they begin to move slowly, and if they are disturbed again after a short period of time, they fall from the plant to the ground. The famous representatives of the leaf family, found in the Pacific and South Asian regions, are so similar to the leaves of some plants that they can only be noticed when they move. In this regard, the only ones that can compete with them are the leaf butterflies, which on a branch are indistinguishable from a dry leaf of a plant. Some species of daytime butterflies have chosen a different method of camouflage: their wings are transparent, so these insects are almost invisible in flight.
Other forms of mimicry. Mimicry is one of the least studied areas of entomology. Unfortunately, traditionally the main attention here was paid to cases of imitation in adults, and only recently has interest in the imitation capabilities of immature stages of insects begun to increase. Perhaps one of the most effective types of mimicry is the complete loss by an animal of external resemblance to an animate object and, in general, to anything specific (a kind of “anti-mimicry”). There are known bugs whose legs, chest or head shape is so atypical for living beings that the insect as a whole looks completely “non-bug-like”. In some cockroaches, grasshoppers, bedbugs, spiders and many other species, the “dismembering” coloring of the body, consisting of irregular stripes and spots, seems to break its contours, allowing the animal to blend more completely with the background. Legs, antennae and other body parts sometimes look so “atypical” that this alone scares off potential predators. Harmless diurnal insects often achieve external resemblance to stinging or inedible species thanks to the movements of their bicolored legs.
Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
Synonyms:See what "MIMICRY" is in other dictionaries:
MIMICRY, a form of animal self-defense through visual deception. Animal mimics, usually harmless edible species, imitate the warning coloration of a “model,” a poisonous or dangerous species. If coloring increases an animal's chances of survival,... ... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary
- (English mimicry, from Greek mimikos imitative), imitative similarity of an unprotected organism with a protected one or with an inedible one; one of the types of protective coloring and shape. Mimicry in animals is expressed externally. similarity of unprotected... Biological encyclopedic dictionary
Mimicry- The external resemblance of one animal (simulator) to another animal (model), developed through the process of natural selection and usually providing certain advantages to the animal simulator. There are many different types of mimicry, including... Great psychological encyclopedia
Mimicry- Mimicry: flounder on the rocks. MIMICRY (English mimicry, from the Greek mimikos imitative), one of the types of protective coloring and shape in which an animal resembles objects in the environment, plants or others (inedible or... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (English mimicry from the Greek mimikos imitative), animals have one of the types of protective coloring and shape, in which the animal resembles environmental objects, plants, inedible or predatory animals. Helps preserve... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (mimicry obsolete), mimicry, pl. no, female (English mimicry from Greek mimeomai I imitate). Involuntary, imitative reproduction by some animals, for the purpose of self-defense, of the forms and colors of other animals or the environment (biol.). || transfer... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Similarity, mimetism, disguise Dictionary of Russian synonyms. mimicry noun, number of synonyms: 3 disguise (20) ... Dictionary of synonyms
See Art. Protective coloring and shape of animals. Ecological encyclopedic dictionary. Chisinau: Main editorial office of the Moldavian Soviet Encyclopedia. I.I. Dedu. 1989. Mimicry (from the Greek mimikos imitative) protective coloring or form... ... Ecological dictionary
mimicry- and outdated mimicry... Dictionary of difficulties of pronunciation and stress in modern Russian language
Mimicry- Mimicry ♦ Mimétisme The ability to become different, that is, similar to something that you are not, imitating it against your own will. Mimicry is more related to physiology and impregnation (penetration. - Approx. Per.) than to conscious... ... Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary
MIMICRY, and, female. (specialist.). In some animals and plants: similarity in color and shape with the environment, which helps them in the struggle for existence. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Books
- Mimicry, G. D. H. Carpenter, Along with the presentation of classical facts and theories on mimicry by Bates, Wallace, Muller and others, the book contains a large number of the latest facts discovered by modern researchers and... Category:
Contents of the article
MIMICRY, the imitative resemblance of some animals, mainly insects, to other species, providing protection from enemies. It is difficult to draw a clear boundary between it and a protective color or form. In the narrowest sense, mimicry is the imitation by a species, defenseless against some predators, of the appearance of a species avoided by these potential enemies due to inedibility or the presence of special means of defense. For example, a butterfly Limenitis archippus imitates a butterfly Danaus plexippus, which is not pecked by birds because it tastes unpleasant. However, several other types of protective adaptations can be called mimicry in relation to insects. For example, a stick insect looks like an “inanimate” thin twig. The pattern on the wings of many butterflies makes them almost indistinguishable against the background of tree bark, mosses or lichens. Strictly speaking, this is a protective coloring, but there is a clear protective imitation of other objects, i.e., in a broad sense, mimicry.
Forms of mimicry.
There are three main types of mimicry - apathetic, sematic and epigamic.
Apathetic
Mimicry is the resemblance of a species to an object in the natural environment - animal, plant or mineral origin. Due to the diversity of such objects, this type of mimicry falls into many smaller categories.
Sematic
(preventive) mimicry is the imitation in shape and color of a species avoided by predators due to the presence of special means of defense or an unpleasant taste. It is found in larvae, nymphs, adults and possibly even pupae.
Epigamic
mimicry, or coloration, can occur in sexually dimorphic species. An inedible animal is imitated either by males or females. In this case, females sometimes imitate several differently colored species that are found either in a given area in different seasons, or in different parts of the range of the imitating species. Darwin considered this type of mimicry to be the result of sexual selection, in which the defenseless form becomes more and more similar to the protected one in the process of destruction of less perfect imitators by natural enemies. Those who manage to more accurately copy someone else's appearance survive thanks to this similarity and give birth to offspring.
Ratio of numbers of copied and copying species.
An inedible form copied by another species must obviously be so abundant that natural enemies very quickly (after the first one or two attempts to feast on individuals of the corresponding appearance) learn to avoid it. If there are more imitators than originals, such training will naturally be delayed, and both the original and the copy will have to suffer from this. As a rule, the number of copied individuals is many times higher than that of copying individuals, although there may be rare exceptions, for example, when development conditions for the former are unfavorable, while for the latter they are close to ideal.
Examples of mimicry.
Daytime butterflies.
In North America, the most striking example of mimicry is the imitation of a butterfly. Limenitis archippus(its English name is viceroy, viceroy) to another butterfly - Danaus plexippus(this large beautiful butterfly is called a monarch). They are very similar in color, although the imitation is somewhat smaller than the original and has an “extra” black arc on the hind wings. This mimicry is limited to adults (adults), and the caterpillars of the two species are completely different. The “original” has caterpillars with a bright black-yellow-green pattern, which is boldly displayed to birds and other predators. The larvae of the imitator species, on the contrary, are inconspicuous, speckled, and look like bird droppings. Thus, the adult stage here serves as an example of mimicry in the narrow sense of the word, and the caterpillar shows protective coloration.
Mimicry is widespread in many regions of Southeast Asia and Australia. Among the butterflies living here, Danaids and many species of swallowtails have an unpleasant taste for birds and other predators. Their appearance is, as far as possible, copied by completely edible species of swallowtails and butterflies of other families. Moreover, sometimes sailboats and Danaids, protected from enemies, copy each other’s appearance no less skillfully than their defenseless imitators do. A similar situation is observed in the tropics of America and Africa. One of the classic examples of mimicry is the African butterfly. Hypolimmas misippus, which, depending on the geographical area, imitates different species of Danaids and, thus, is itself represented by externally different forms.
Night butterflies.
Most of the literature on mimicry describes it using the example of representatives of the order Lepidoptera, but excellent examples of imitation are also known among other groups of insects and other animals. The caterpillars of one of the South American species of hawkmoths look extremely unremarkable in a calm state, however, if they are disturbed, they rear up and arch their body, inflating its front end. The result is a complete illusion of a snake's head. For greater authenticity, the caterpillars slowly sway from side to side.
Spiders.
As you know, spiders are the worst enemies of insects. However, the spider Synemosina antidae is so similar to an ant that only by looking closely can one recognize the mimicry. On the other hand, some ants and other insects at certain stages of their development resemble spiders in appearance and habits.
Bees and wasps.
These insects serve as favorite role models. Their appearance and behavior are copied by many types of flies. Some of the imitators not only use the wasp coloration, but when caught, they pretend that they are going to sting and buzz almost the same way as the “originals”. Many species of moths from several families also resemble bees and wasps - in flight or at rest.
Beetles.
Thousands of insect species imitate animal excrement in their appearance. Many beetles resort to this form of mimicry, which complement their resemblance to animal feces by pretending to be dead when they sense danger. Other beetles resemble plant seeds in their dormant state.
Stick insects.
The most amazing imitators include representatives of the order of stick insects, or ghost insects. At rest, these insects are almost indistinguishable from thin twigs. At the first appearance of danger, they freeze, but when the fear passes, they begin to move slowly, and if they are disturbed again after a short period of time, they fall from the plant to the ground. The famous representatives of the leaf family, found in the Pacific and South Asian regions, are so similar to the leaves of some plants that they can only be noticed when they move. In this regard, the only ones that can compete with them are the leaf butterflies, which on a branch are indistinguishable from a dry leaf of a plant. Some species of daytime butterflies have chosen a different method of camouflage: their wings are transparent, so these insects are almost invisible in flight.
Other forms of mimicry.
Mimicry is one of the least studied areas of entomology. Unfortunately, traditionally the main attention here was paid to cases of imitation in adults, and only recently has interest in the imitation capabilities of immature stages of insects begun to increase. Perhaps one of the most effective types of mimicry is the complete loss of an animal’s external resemblance to an animate object or anything specific in general (a kind of “anti-mimicry”). There are known bugs whose legs, chest or head shape is so atypical for living beings that the insect as a whole looks completely “non-bug-like”. In some cockroaches, grasshoppers, bedbugs, spiders and many other species, the “dismembering” coloring of the body, consisting of irregular stripes and spots, seems to break its contours, allowing the animal to blend more completely with the background. Legs, antennae and other body parts sometimes look so “atypical” that this alone scares off potential predators. Harmless diurnal insects often achieve external resemblance to stinging or inedible species thanks to the movements of their bicolored legs.
To designate certain special cases of extreme external similarity between different species of animals belonging to different genera and even families and orders.
In a narrow sense mimicry- this is the similarity between two (or more) species of organisms, which developed during evolution as a protective one in one or both species. In a broad sense, the same term often also refers to all pronounced cases of imitative coloring and the resemblance of animals to inanimate objects.
Mimicry of color
Wallace especially studied the phenomenon of mimicry from the point of view of evolutionary theory. The most widespread and long-known phenomenon is a general correspondence, harmony in the color of an animal with its habitat. Among Arctic animals, white body coloration is very common. For some - throughout the year: polar bear, polar owl, harp falcon; for others living in areas freed from snow in the summer, the brown color changes to white only in winter: arctic fox, ermine, mountain hare. The benefits of this kind of device are obvious.
Another example of widespread protective or harmonious coloration is observed in the deserts of the globe. Insects, lizards, birds and animals present here a huge selection of sand-colored forms, in all its possible shades; this is observed not only on small creatures, but even on such large ones as steppe antelopes, lions or camels. The extent to which imitative coloring generally protects from the sight of enemies is well known to every hunter; hazel grouse, woodcock, great snipe, partridges are examples.
The same phenomenon is represented on the widest scale by marine fauna: fish, crayfish and other organisms living on the bottom, due to their color and uneven surface of the body, are extremely difficult to distinguish from the bottom on which they live; This similarity is further enhanced in some cases by the ability to change its color depending on the color of the bottom, which is possessed, for example, by cephalopods, some fish and crustaceans. This action is performed automatically, regulated, most often, by the retina. Light stimulation is transmitted to pigment cells with diverging fibers - chromatophores, capable of contracting, expanding and being surrounded by a halo independently of one another, creating numerous color combinations. I. Loeb defined the mechanism of this phenomenon as telephotography of an image appearing on the retina onto the surface of the body, diffuse transfer from the retina to the skin.
Among the various cases of so-called harmonic coloring, adaptations to known lighting conditions, the play of light and shadow, are also observed. Animals that appear brightly colored and variegated outside of normal living conditions can, in fact, completely harmonize and blend in with the color of their environment. The bright, dark and yellow, transverse striping of the tiger's skin easily hides it from view in the thickets of reeds and bamboos where it lives, merging with the play of light and shadow of vertical stems and hanging leaves. The round spots on the skin of some forest animals have the same meaning: fallow deer, leopard, ocelot; here these spots coincide with the round glare of light that the sun plays in the foliage of the trees. Even the variegation of the giraffe’s skin is no exception: at some distance the giraffe is extremely difficult to distinguish from the old tree trunks covered with lichens, between which it grazes.
A similar phenomenon is represented by bright, variegated fish of coral reefs.
Mimicry of form
Finally, there are cases when animals acquire an extraordinary resemblance not only in color, but also in shape to individual objects among which they live, which is called imitation. There are especially many such examples between insects. Caterpillars of moth butterflies ( Geometridae) live on the branches of plants with which they are similar in color, and have the habit, having attached themselves with their hind legs, to stretch out and hold their body motionless in the air.
In this photo, the moth caterpillar is difficult to see even at maximum resolution, although it occupies the entire central part of the image
In this respect, they resemble small dry twigs of plants to such an extent that the most keen and experienced eye can hardly see them. Other caterpillars resemble bird excrement, fallen birch catkins, etc.
There are known cases of external resemblance to ants (myrmecomorphy).
Amazing adaptations are presented by tropical stick insects from the family Phasmidae: they imitate the color and shape of the body - some are dry sticks several centimeters long, others are leaves. Butterflies of the genus Kallima from Southeast Asia, brightly colored on the upper side of the wings, when they sit on a branch and fold their wings, they take the form of a withered leaf: with short outgrowths of the hind wings the butterfly rests on the branch, and they resemble a petiole; the pattern and color of the back side of the folded wings are so reminiscent of the color and venation of a dried leaf that at a very close distance it is extremely difficult to distinguish the butterfly from the leaves. Similar examples are known from marine fauna; so, a small fish from a group of seahorses, Phyllopteryx eques, living off the coast of Australia, thanks to numerous ribbon-like and thread-like leathery outgrowths of the body, it acquires a resemblance to the algae among which it lives. It is clear what kind of service such devices provide to animals in avoiding enemies.
Sound mimicry
There are many animals that use sound imitation as a defense mechanism. This phenomenon mainly occurs among birds. For example, the short owl, living in rodent burrows, can imitate the hissing of a snake.
Predator and prey
An example of mimicry: a flower spider on an inflorescence
In other cases, camouflage similarity serves, on the contrary, as a means for predators to lie in wait and even attract prey, for example, in many spiders. Various insects from the group of praying mantises ( Mantidae) in India, while remaining motionless, present a striking resemblance to a flower, which is what attracts the insects that they catch. Finally, the phenomenon of mimicry in the strict sense of the word represents imitation of animals of another species.
There are brightly colored insects which, for various reasons (for example, because they are equipped with a sting or because they are able to secrete poisonous or repulsive substances of smell and taste) are comparatively protected from the attack of enemies; and next to them there are sometimes other types of insects, devoid of protective devices, but in their appearance and coloring they present a deceptive resemblance to their well-protected brothers. In tropical America, butterflies from the family heliconids. They have large, delicate, brightly colored wings, and their color is the same on both sides - upper and lower; their flight is weak and slow, they never hide, but always land openly on the upper side of leaves or flowers; they can easily be distinguished from other butterflies and are striking from afar. All of them have liquids that emit a strong odor; according to the observations of many authors, birds do not eat or touch them; smell and taste serve as protection for them, and bright color has a warning value; this explains their large numbers, slow flight and habit of never hiding. Some other species of butterflies from the genus fly in the same areas Leptalis, according to the structure of the head, legs and venation of the wings, even belonging to a different family, Pieridae; but in the general shape and color of the wings they are such an exact copy of the heliconids that in amateur collections they are usually mixed up and taken as one species with them. These butterflies do not have the unpleasant liquids and smell of heliconids and, therefore, are not protected from insectivorous birds; but having an external resemblance to the heliconids and flying with them, also slowly and openly, thanks to this similarity they avoid attack. There are much fewer of them in number; for several tens and even hundreds of heliconids there is one leptalid; Lost in a crowd of well-protected heliconids, defenseless leptalids, thanks to their external resemblance to them, are saved from their enemies. This is camouflage, mimicry. Similar examples are known from various orders of insects and not only between closely related groups, but also often between representatives of different orders; there are known flies that resemble bumblebees, butterflies that imitate wasps, etc. In all these cases, mimicry is accompanied by similarities in lifestyle or mutual dependence of both similar species. So, flies of a kind Volucella due to their resemblance to bumblebees or wasps, they can penetrate the nests of these insects with impunity and lay eggs; Fly larvae feed here on the larvae of the nest owners.
Sheep in wolf's clothing
Some organisms, in order to avoid attacks from predators they frequently encounter, impersonate the predators themselves. Costa Rican butterfly Brenthia hexaselena resembles a spider in appearance and movements Phiale formosa(the spider reveals the deception in only 6% of cases). One fruit fly copies the zebra jumping spider, which is a territorial predator: having met a spider, the insect spreads its wings with spider legs depicted on them and jumps up to the spider, and the spider, thinking that it has entered someone else's territory, runs away. In colonies of wandering ants in South America, there are beetles that copy ants in smell and gait.
Collective mimicry
An example of collective mimicry among caterpillars
In collective mimicry, a large group of small-sized organisms gather together in a dense cluster to create the image of a large animal (sometimes of a certain species) or plant.
Plants
Similar phenomena are known between plants: for example, dead nettle ( Lamium album) from the Lamiaceae family, its leaves are extremely reminiscent of stinging nettle ( Urtica dioica), and since nettles are protected by their stinging hairs from herbivores, this similarity can also serve as protection for dead nettles.
Convergence
But at the same time, cases of similarity between two distant species of animals have recently become known that do not at all fit Wallace’s explanation of this phenomenon, according to which one species is an imitation of another due to the greater security of the second species, thereby deceiving its enemies. Such, for example, is the extraordinary similarity between two European moths: Dichonia aprilina And Moma orion, which, however, never fly together, since the first flies in May, the second in August-September. Or, for example, the remarkable similarity between the European butterfly Vanessa prorsa and a butterfly of the kind Phycioides, found in the Argentine Republic, with such a geographical distribution of these species cannot be a case of mimicry. In general, mimicry is only a special case of the phenomenon of convergence, convergence in development, the existence of which we observe in nature, but the immediate causes and conditions of which are unknown to us.
See also
| Mimicry in Wiktionary | |
| Mimicry on Wikimedia Commons |