The occurrence of mimicry among plants and animals
Batesian mimicry
The stinging Hymenoptera (particularly the bees, wasps, and hornets), well protected from most predators and usually equipped with conspicuous warning coloration, are mimicked by insects of many other orders. Ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) and leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) are inedible and are provided with prominent colours and usually with contrasting spots. A whole group of Philippine cockroaches of the genus Prosoplecta mimics these beetles, having undergone profound modification to achieve the similarity. To simulate the short rounded form of the ladybirds, the large hind wings of the roaches are rolled and folded in a manner unparalleled in other insects.
The order Lepidoptera abounds with Batesian mimics, the best known of which is a swallowtail butterfly, Papilio dardanus, a widespread African species. In many populations of this species the females are polymorphic; i.e., a number of different types (morphs) of coloration are found, each morph being a mimic of a species of inedible butterfly of another genus (either Danaus or Amauris). In all populations, the males are nonmimetic, retaining the same yellow and black pattern throughout. The presence of polymorphism, coupled with the ability of the lepidopterist to breed and rear this species in the laboratory, makes this an apt species for the study of colour inheritance (see also heritability). Investigators have found that mimicry in P. dardanus depends upon the action of certain primary genes, the expression of which is switched on or off by modifier genes. The modifier genes reduce the number of possible morphs to the restricted number of mimetic forms. The effects of modifier genes are not carried to the offspring when members of different geographic races are crossed. This finding suggests that each set of modifier genes is adapted to the gene complex in which it normally occurs and in which it probably evolved.
Müllerian mimicry
Müllerian mimicry often occurs in groups of unrelated species, all noxious or inedible and all possessing the same conspicuous warning coloration. Such groups, called mimicry rings, often have associated Batesian mimics. It is not always easy to evaluate the palatability of members of such rings, and thus to distinguish Müllerian from Batesian mimics. Parallel Müllerian mimicry rings are known from South Africa, Borneo, and the tropical Americas; each contains such unrelated insects as malacodermoid and longicorn beetles, butterflies, true bugs, and spider wasps. In South America inedible butterflies of many distinct nymphalid subfamilies (Danainae, Ithomiinae, Acraeinae, and Heliconiinae) share the same warning coloration. Certain species show a highly perplexing divergence from the usual mimicry principles, however. It is axiomatic that maximum protection is gained by Müllerian mimics when all individuals employ the same signal, a principle known as signal standardization. Two species of Heliconius (H. melpomene and H. erato) are polymorphic, however, with each morph in one species duplicated by one in the other and with the morphs of each pair having virtually contiguous geographic ranges. Ecological and genetic evidence indicates that the racial divergence within these species was produced by differences in the abundance (or degree of protection) of different mimicry rings in different refuges, as have lasted for several thousand years, with the species coming to mimic whichever abundant, protected species was within reach by a single mutation.
Aggressive mimicry
Examples of aggressive mimicry are abundant and varied; each demonstrates its own particular variation of basic mimicry principles. The examples cited below illustrate a few of the remarkable extremes in the evolution of mimicry.
Parasitic worms
The flukes (Trematoda) are a class of parasitic worms belonging to the phylum Platyhelminthes. One species, Leucochloridium macrostomum, resides principally in the intestine of songbirds. The eggs of the parasite pass to the outside in the feces of the birds and are readily ingested by a terrestrial snail, Succinea, an inhabitant of waterlogged meadows and riverbanks. The parasite eggs hatch into the first larval form within the snail. The next stage, called the sporocyst, is strikingly green in colour and bears yellow-brown rings. The sporocyst develops in the snail tissues and carries several sacs of “spores,” one of which is placed into each of the snail’s tentacles, or eyestalks. The sac then begins to pulsate violently, at about 40 to 70 beats per minute. The tentacle of the snail becomes greatly enlarged and eventually is transformed into a transparent covering over the pulsating sporocyst. Succinea usually avoids light, but specimens with this parasite do not. When the snail appears with its conspicuous, pulsing eyestalks, birds mistake the eyestalks for insect larvae, bite them off, and eat them. Within the bird, the sporocyst then hatches into the final larval stage, which grows into an adult worm. In the meantime the snail’s eyestalk regenerates, and the cycle is repeated when another sac passes into the new eyestalks. Because the sporocysts of other trematodes are neither brightly coloured nor mobile, it can be concluded that the colour and pulsation of Leucochloridium are adaptations for arousing the interest of the insectivorous birds. Under normal circumstances the host birds do not eat snails, so the sporocyst must imitate the bird’s proper food in order to be eaten and to complete its life cycle in the bird host. The process represents an unusual case of aggressive mimicry, for the parasite manipulates its hosts and causes the bird to infect itself with the parasite.
Another trematode, Cercaria mirabilis, is notable for its unusually large larvae form, called a cercaria. The size of this cercaria and its hopping mode of locomotion cause it to resemble a small, swimming crustacean or mosquito larva, with the result that fish mistake it for food and swallow it. Research on parasites of this kind is much easier when it is recognized that the larval stages often mimic the food of their respective hosts. Examination of the parasite often provides a suggestion as to the probable host.
Insect-luring plants
Newly hatched flesh flies (Sarcophaga), blowflies (Calliphora), and greenbottle flies (Lucilia) are attracted to glistening droplets or imitations of droplets. The grass of parnassus (Parnassia palustris) has flowers with five nectar petals, which bear glistening buttons but no nectar. They attract flies, nevertheless, and reward them with nectar in two depressions on the upper surfaces of the petals. The insectivorous sundew (Drosera), on the other hand, presents a deceptive lure, consisting of glistening secretory droplets on the glandular leaves, which trap insects that are then dissolved with digestive juices. The pitcher plants (Nepenthes, Darlingtonia, Sarracenia, Cephalotus) have juglike leaves, which may bear flowerlike markings near their openings. Some have a flap or hood that enhances the resemblance to a flower and prevents filling with rainwater. One form, Nepenthes, secretes nectar at the lip of the pitcher. A foraging insect landing on this apparent flower slips on the edge and falls in. A band of gland cells below the slippery region secretes an enzyme that digests protein. The lower part of the pitcher contains a watery mixture of digestive fluids.