What is the best way to remember your girlfriend’s birthday?
Some might say to set a reminder in your phone or organise the flowers to be
sent weeks in advance but I think you will agree that the most effective way
would be to forget it once! Am I right guys? Fortunately my boyfriend has not
forgotten any of those ‘vitally important’ dates and therefore escaped from
being the object of my wrath but if he had of, I’m sure he would be very unlikely
to forget the following year!
Some animals employ a similar strategy called aposematism (Mappes et al. 2005). This involves the prey
item using bright colours to remind predators that last time they ate an animal
that stood out so blatantly, like themselves, they got very sick or experienced
something else that they would rather avoid than experience again. Some
examples of animals using this technique are select species of frogs, snakes, wasps
and bees to name a few. But not all animals with these bright colour markings
are actually poisonous or distasteful to predators!
Batesian mimicry
is a style of mimicry where one palatable organism mimics another species that
is known to be unpleasant and unpalatable. Because the model and the mimic share
the same predators and similar warning systems (most commonly aposematic colouration),
the mimic relies on the predator mistaking them for the model and leave them
alone (Pasteur 1982).
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| Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) worker beside a hoverfly (Eristalis tenax) (Source: Warren Photographic. Image By Taylor) |
One example of this is in the hoverfly. Hoverfly species
mimic the colouration of bees and wasps and therefore their predators assume
that they possess the same sting despite them just being a regular fly (Golding et al. 2005).
Interestingly, different species of hoverfly show slightly different
colour patterns. A study by Edmunds and Reader (2013) suggested that species of
hoverfly mimic different species of bumblebees. In areas where there were a high
frequency of black and yellow hoverflies there was also an increased frequency
of black and yellow bumblebees. Similarly, red-tailed hoverflies were commonly
found in areas with many red tailed bumblebees.
References
Edmunds, M. & Reader, T., 2013. Evidence for batesian
mimicry in a polymorphic hoverfly. Evolution, 68(3), pp. 827-839.
Golding, Y., Ennos, R., Sullivan, M. & Edmunds,
M., 2005. Hoverfly mimicry deceives humans. Journal of Zoology, 266(1),
pp. 395-399.
Mappes, J., Marples, N. & Endler, J. A., 2005. The
complex business of survival by aposematism. Trends in Ecology and
Evolution, 20(11), pp. 598-603.
Pasteur, G., 1982. A classificatory review of mimicry
systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 13(1), pp. 169-199.
Taylor, K., n.d. Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) worker beside a hoverfly (Eristalis tenax), photograph, viewed 26 March 2014,
<http://www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/photography/bigs/38654-Honey-Bee-and-Hover-Fly-side-by-side-white-background.jpg>
Excellent example. Even to humans, the mimicry of hoverflies is exceptionally well-matching. Do you know why nature seems to have converged on the idea of yellow and black, or red and black, striping as a warning against noxiousness or toxicity? Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI love Batesian mimicry. It's a successful adaptation, impressive for its own sake and because it shows that predators learn, so well that they won't touch anything that resembles what gave them such an unpleasant time. I'm interested in the answer to Tasmin's question. Nicely written post.
ReplyDeleteThey are many animals out there that are either black and yellow or black and red (or another combination of bright colours). This aposematic colouration is almost only found in unpalatable/poisonous species or species that mimic an unpalatable/poisonous species. Examples include: poison dart frogs, coral snakes, (and its mimic the red milk snake), ladybirds, red back spiders, black widow spiders, velvet ants (a type of wasp where the females resemble furry ants!), tiger moths, and many MANY more! :D
ReplyDeleteFor an over view of aposematism, Marthe Thorsen did a blog post on it a few weeks back. It is available here if you are interested
http://mnthorsen.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/aposematism_10.html