for which the mimic avoids harm by appearing harmful,
aggressive mimicry harms others by appearing harmless.
Elizabeth Peckham called defensive mimicry
“direction protection”
and she wrote that cases of “indirection protection”
included spiders that mimic unpalatable creatures
some for protection, some for capturing prey, and some for both.
George and Elizabeth studied
defenseless spiders of the family attidae that mimic ants,
which helps them escape from birds that eat spiders.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
There are many cases of agressive mimicry.
the wolf in sheep’s clothing intentionally deceives the sheep
but accidentally deceives the shepherd
who butchers the sheep for meat.
The northern shrike mimics the songs
of small birds
to lure them to their death.
The tongue of an alligator snapping turtle
has a worm-like extension that lures fishes
that it eats.
The assassin bug eats spiders
and plugs the silk of the spiders’ webs
to mimic a bug caught in it.
Bolas spiders lure
male moth flies by mimicing
the female moth flies’ sex pheromones.
The sabre-toothed blenny mimics the dance
of the bluestreak cleaner wrasse
but instead of cleaning the grouper takes a bite of its fin.
Parasitic larva of the shellfish Lampsilis
are injected into a fish by the female shellfish
who lures the fish using extensions that mimic tiny fish.
The haplochromine cichlid plays dead,
lying on its side on the lake bottom and faking a blotchy skin,
but eats any scavenger that approaches.
Instances
“In looking for instances of protective form and color among spiders
we encounter one difficulty at the outset.
The meaning of a protective peculiarity can be determined
only when the animal is seen in its natural home.
The number of strangely modified forms depicted
in descriptive works on spiders is enormous.
Bodies are twisted, elongated, inflated, flattened,
truncated, covered with tubercles or spines,
enclosed within chitinous plates, colored like bark,
like lichens, like flowers of every imaginable hue,
like bird droppings, like sand or stones,
and in every one of these modifications
there is doubtless an adaptation of the spider to its surroundings
which when it is studied out of its natural relations,
we can only guess at.” —E.G.P.
Strangely modified forms
are doubtless adaptions
we can only guess at.
Cases of predatory human behaviors are technically not aggressive mimicry
unless you assume that the con artists
(Nigerian princes, car salesmen, insurance agents, politicians)
do not deceive their victims intentionally.
Cases of predatory human behaviors are technically not aggressive mimicry unless you assume that the con artists (Nigerian princes, car salesmen, insurance agents, politicians) do not deceive their victims intentionally.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia:
Other readings: