What is Mimicry? Mimicry – looking, acting, or sounding like something else – is a form of deception practiced by a variety of animals. For many animals, a key problem is how to eat without being eaten. By mimicking something else, they increase their chances of survival. There are three strategies for fooling predators. One is to use camouflage, blending into the background. Another is to resemble a species that is distasteful or threatening to a predator. The third is to use deceptive behavior whenever a predator is about to attack. Animals that are protected by their likeness to a dangerous species are the most successful mimics. They do not have to change their behavior or stay against a safe background to disguise themselves. Because their appearance says “keep away,” they can go about their daily business with little danger.

Looking Dangerous: Harmless insects often mimic stinging insects. The hornet moth looks like a hornet, the bumble bee moth resembles a bumble bee, and the buprestid beetle mimics a wasp. Other insects survive by looking like a distasteful species that predators avoid. Female mocker swallowtails mimic poisonous butterflies like the friar and the African monarch. The males do not mimic and are at risk. Some birds and reptiles also practice this type of mimicry. The black flycatcher is a bird that resembles the unpalatable drongo. The African rufous flycatcher looks like the ant thrush, which tastes of formic acid from its diet of ants. Among reptiles, the king snake has markings that resemble those of the poisonous coral snake. This type of mimicry is not a conscious action. Over time evolution has produced animals that resemble harmful species. The resemblance offers protection, so these animals survive and produce young that look like their parents.

Confusing Predators: If discovered by a predator, some animals try to convince their attacker that they are dangerous. The hawk moth caterpillar waves its body like a snake. Its two eyelike markings add to the illusion. Other animals like the grass snake pretend to be dead. The Virginia opossum rolls over and lies still with its mouth open and a glassy look in its eyes. This behavior deters predators such as cats, that need to kill before they feed. When the pale prominent moth plays dead, it resembles an inedible wood shaving, so it is doubly protected. The hog nosed snake also pretends to be dead and may even give off a rotting smell. Before it resorts to this, however, it mimics a rattlesnake, raising its head as if about to strike and making a rattling sound. The grass snake pretends to be dead to fool potential attackers.

Key Facts:
Batesian Mimicry: The edible viceroy is protected from predators because its appearance mimics that of the inedible monarch butterfly. This form of mimicry is called Batesian mimicry, after the nineteenth century English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who proposed that a harmless species could gain protection by imitating a toxic species or a distasteful one. Certain monarch butterflies can also benefit from Batesian mimicry as not all monarchs are poisonous. As caterpillars, monarchs may feed on either poisonous or nonpoisonous milkweed. If a bird eats a butterfly reared on toxic milkweed the bird vomits, and it learns to avoid any butterfly with the same markings. So monarchs that eat nonpoisonous milkweed are mimics of their toxic relatives. Mimicry within one species is called automimicry.

Mullerian Mimicry: The hoverfly provides an example of Batesian mimicry. It looks like a yellow jacket, so predators assume it can sting and avoid it. Some wasps, including the yellow jacket, benefit from another form of mimicry. They have black and yellow markings like those of the cinnabar moth caterpillar and taste just as unpleasant to predators. A bird that learns to avoid the distasteful caterpillar will also avoid the wasp. A bird that is stung while eating a wasp will avoid the caterpillar. This kind of imitation – where appearance is shared by different but equally unpalatable species- is called Mullerian mimicry.

Did You Know: 
Worker termites feeding under leaf debris collectively make a snakelike “hiss” to scare away predators.
If threatened, a dormouse in a dark hole will hiss like a snake to scare off an attacker.
One orb weaver spider spins two blobs of gossamer on its web that look like the spider itself. A bird is likely to attack the wrong “spider.”

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