What is the essence of mimicry? Mimicry: examples

As you know, nature does not create anything impractical. Any adaptation, which she endowed with a living organism, is necessarily functional and practical. And from camouflage abilities, acquired by plants, insects, birds and other animals in the process of evolution, there are only those that reliably help survival. In order to understand the essence of mimicry, it is necessary to understand what it is and what it is intended for.

Types of mimicry

The disguise of living beings can be divided into groups according to different signs. The first of these is the goals of mimicry, divided into two groups:

1. Aggressive : the predator merges with the background for an ambush to prey. Most often it is a behavioral or color mimicry. Examples of animal hunters using it can be listed for a long time: the lion merges with savanna, the tiger strips make it invisible in the taiga, the polar bear is invisible against the background of ice and snow.
2. Passive : designed to mask the edible animal. It is more complicated, even if it is expressed only in color.

Types of mimicry according to the methods used can be divided as follows:

1. Color . And it can be not only masking under the landscape, but also imitating other, dangerous species of fauna in the event that the goals are passive disguise.
2. Mimicry forms - is characteristic of insects and marine inhabitants and is also defensive in purpose. It manifests itself in visual similarity with "uninteresting" predator objects of nature. Among the higher animals there are no examples of such camouflage. After all, what is the essence of form mimicry? In a deception view. And mammals in hunting are guided mainly by the smell.
3. Mimicry of sound. Also a protective appearance. Expressed in imitation of the sounds of dangerous creatures. An example can be a rabbit sychik, hissing like a snake.

Color mimicry

The most common kind of disguise. The simplest option - merging with the surrounding background - is used for both aggressive and passive purposes. Most living beings, using this disguise, "wear" color all their lives. However, there are variations of color mimicry. The first is a seasonal color change. An example is a rabbit hare. An even more complex mechanism of camouflage in lower organisms, capable of changing color depending on the background on which they appeared. To merge with the color of the surface - that is the essence of the mimicry of color. The most famous example is a chameleon, capable of "coloring" itself even in the colors of a chessboard. But he is not alone in his skills: the caterpillar of Smerinthus tiliae retains a green color, while sitting on a sheet, and is repainted in brown, traveling along the trunk.

Copying dangerous species

In principle, also refers to the color mimicry. However, the option is even more convoluted. Masking for poisonous and inedible species is used by insects, reptiles and amphibians. The most diverse in this respect is the mimicry of butterflies. For example, an inoffensive fleece wears the wings of a poisonous heliconide. They can be distinguished only by the structure of the body. However, they copy not only their relatives. The tropical pottery butterfly has on the wings a very convincing pattern, similar to the eyes of an owl.

Yet disguise under dangerous kinsmen is more popular in the living world. The analogue of our horror - striped royal snake - wears the combat color of the deadly poisonous coral aspid, and the harmless frog Allobates zaparo is painted under a very dangerous one, called Epipedobates bilinguis. However, supper "eyes" - spots on the vertex - are also a frightening device.

The main condition that must be met is that the disguise "under threat" would work - the number of mimicrants should be lower than the number of copied. Predators periodically still "tasted" inedible prey. And if it is at least half the time delicious, the protective coloring will cease to function.

Imitation of the environment

It is very common not only on land, but also in sea and ocean waters. To become like a non-food - that's the essence of mimicry of this type. Using its round crab resembles a pebble, shrimp palemon - brown pimply algae of the Sargasso Sea, where it lives. Such mimicry may be temporary, behavioral: the hiding octopus draws tentacles under it, changes its color (as we see, there is even a combination of two kinds of disguise) and curves the "back". Result: before you a boring and unnecessary stone.

Disputes around mimicry

In recent years, many scientists began to doubt the reliability of this method of protection - at least, imitative. The fact is that masking-mimicry is based mainly on deception. But even insectivorous birds are guided not only by visual images, but also by the smell. Accordingly, if it smells delicious, they may not pay attention to the fact that the stick looks like a twig, and eat it. Scarecrow coloring, in their opinion, is more effective - the bird will not fly close enough to check whether the real owl eye looks at it from the tree. Moreover, leaf-eating insects, feeding on foliage, often eat up their relatives, confusing them with their natural food. And the caterpillars, called land surveyors, can be cut by a gardener who mixed them up with sprouts. However, it's much easier to deceive people than their natural enemies. However, from all that has been said, we can conclude that the question, in which the essence of mimicry, again remained unanswered.