The imitative similarity of some animals, mainly insects. Mimicry. Types of mimicry formation
To indicate some special cases of extreme external resemblance between various types animals belonging to different genera and even families and orders.
In a narrow sense mimicry- this is the similarity between two (or more) types of organisms, which has been developed in the course of evolution as a protective one or both species. In a broad sense, the same term often refers to all pronounced cases of imitative coloring and resemblance of animals to inanimate objects.
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Wallace was especially concerned with the study of the phenomenon of mimicry from the point of view of evolutionary theory. The most widespread and long-known phenomenon is the general correspondence, harmony in the color of the animal with its habitat. Among arctic animals, a white body color is very often observed. For some, during all year round: white bear, polar owl, Greenland falcon; in others, living in areas that are freed from snow for the summer, the brown color changes to white only in winter: arctic fox, ermine, white hare. The benefits of such a device are obvious.
Another example of a widespread protective or harmonic coloration is observed in the deserts of the globe. Insects, lizards, birds and animals present here a huge selection of sand-colored forms, in all its various shades; this is seen not only in small creatures, but even in large ones such as steppe antelopes, lions, or camels. To what extent imitative coloring generally protects from the sight of enemies is well known to every hunter; hazel grouse, woodcock, great snipe, partridges are examples.
The same phenomenon is represented in the widest scale by the marine fauna: fish, crayfish and other organisms living on the bottom, due to their color and uneven surface of the body, are extremely difficult to distinguish from the bottom on which they live; This similarity is further enhanced in some cases by the ability to change its color depending on the color of the bottom, which, for example, cephalopods, mollusks, some fish and crustaceans have. This action is performed automatically, regulated, most often, by the retina. Light irritation is transmitted to pigment cells with divergent fibers - chromatophores able to contract, expand and be surrounded by a halo independently of one another, creating numerous color combinations. I. Loeb defined the mechanism of such a phenomenon as telephotography of an image that appears on the retina to the surface of the body, diffuse transfer from the retina to the skin.
Among the various cases of so-called harmonic coloration, there are also adaptations to certain lighting conditions, the play of light and shadow. Animals that seem brightly colored and variegated outside normal living conditions can actually harmonize and merge with the color of the environment. The bright, dark and yellow, transverse striping of the skin of the tiger easily hides it from view in the thickets of reeds and bamboos, where it lives, merging with the play of light and shadow of vertical stems and hanging leaves. Round spots on the skin of some forest animals have the same meaning: fallow deer, leopard, ocelot; here these spots coincide with the round glare of light with which the sun plays in the foliage of trees. Even the variegated skin of a giraffe is no exception: at some distance it is extremely difficult to distinguish a giraffe from the old tree trunks overgrown with lichens, between which it grazes.
A similar phenomenon is represented by bright, colorfully colored fish of coral reefs.
Form Mimicry
Finally, there are cases when animals acquire an extraordinary resemblance not only in color, but also in shape with individual objects among which they live, which is called imitation. There are especially many such examples between insects. Moth caterpillars ( Geometridae) live on the branches of plants with which they are similar in color, and have the habit, attaching themselves with their hind legs, to stretch and hold their body motionless in the air. In this respect, they are so reminiscent of small dry twigs of plants that the most keen and experienced eye can hardly see them. Other caterpillars resemble bird excrement, fallen birch catkins, etc.
There are known cases of external resemblance to ants (myrmecomorphy).
Amazing adaptations are tropical stick insects from the family Phasmidae: they imitate the color and shape of the body - some are dry sticks a few centimeters long, others are leaves. Butterflies of the genus Kallima from Southeast Asia, brightly colored on the upper side of the wings, when they sit on a branch and fold their wings, they take the form of a withered leaf: with short outgrowths of the hind wings, the butterfly rests on the branch, and they resemble a petiole; the pattern and color of the back side of the folded wings are so reminiscent of the color and venation of a dried leaf that at the closest distance the butterfly is extremely difficult to distinguish from the leaves. Similar examples are known from the marine fauna; so, a small fish from the group of seahorses, Phyllopteryx eques living off the coast of Australia, thanks to numerous ribbon-like and filamentous leathery outgrowths of the body, it resembles the algae among which it lives. It is clear what service such devices render to animals in avoiding enemies.
Mimicry of sound
There are many animals that use sound imitation as a defense mechanism. Mostly this phenomenon occurs among birds. For example, a rabbit owl, living in rodent burrows, can mimic the hissing of a snake.
predatory grasshopper Chlorobalius leucoviridis, common in Australia, makes sounds that imitate the mating signals of female cicadas, attracting males of the corresponding species.
Predator and prey
In other cases, the camouflage resemblance, on the contrary, serves as a means for predators to stalk and even attract prey, for example, in many spiders. Various insects from the praying mantis group ( Mantidae) in India represent, while remaining motionless, a striking resemblance to a flower, which attracts insects that are caught. Finally, the phenomenon of mimicry in the strict sense of the word is imitation by animals of another species.
There are brightly colored insects, which, for various reasons (for example, because they are equipped with a stinger or due to the ability to secrete poisonous or repulsive substances, smell and taste), are relatively protected from attack by enemies; and next to them there are sometimes other species of insects, devoid of protective devices, but in their appearance and color presenting a deceptive resemblance to their well-protected counterparts. In tropical America, butterflies from the family heliconides. They have large, delicate, brightly colored wings, and their color is the same on both sides - upper and lower; their flight is weak and slow, they never hide, but always land openly on the upper side of leaves or flowers; they can be easily distinguished from other butterflies and are conspicuous from afar. All of them have liquids that emit a strong odor; according to the observations of many authors, birds do not eat them and do not touch them; the smell and taste serve as protection for them, and the bright color has a warning value; this explains their large numbers, slow flight and the habit of never hiding. In the same areas, some other species of butterflies from the genera Leptalis And Euterpe, according to the structure of the head, legs and venation of the wings, even belonging to another family, Pieridae; but in general form and coloration of the wings, they represent such an exact copy of the heliconids that in amateur collections they are usually mixed up and taken as one species with them. These butterflies do not possess unpleasant liquids and the smell of heliconids and, therefore, are not protected from insectivorous birds; but having an external resemblance to the heliconids and flying with them, also slowly and openly, thanks to this resemblance, they avoid attack. They are far fewer in number; for several tens and even hundreds of heliconids, there is one leptalide; lost in a crowd of well-protected heliconids, defenseless leptalids, due to their external resemblance to them, are saved from their enemies. This is masking, mimicry. Similar examples are known from different orders of insects, and not only between closely related groups, but also often between representatives of different orders; flies are known that look like bumblebees, butterflies that imitate wasps, etc. In all these cases, mimicry is accompanied by a similarity in lifestyle or mutual dependence of both similar species. So, flies of the kind Volucella due to their resemblance to bumblebees or wasps, they can penetrate the nests of these insects with impunity and lay eggs; fly larvae feed here on the larvae of nest owners.
Sheep in wolf's clothing
Some organisms, in order to avoid being attacked by frequently encountered predators, pose as predators themselves. Costa Rican butterfly Brenthia hexaselena appearance and movements depicts a spider Phiale formosa(the spider reveals the deception only 6% of the time). One fruit fly copies a zebra jumping spider, which is a territorial predator: having met a spider, the insect spreads its wings with spider legs depicted on them and jumps to the spider, and the spider, thinking that it has fallen into someone else's territory, runs away. In colonies of wandering ants in South America, there are beetles that copy ants by smell and gait.
collective mimicry
In collective mimicry, a large group of small-sized organisms huddle together to create the image of a large animal (sometimes a specific species) or plant.
Plants
Similar phenomena are also known between plants: for example, deaf nettle ( Lamium album) from the family of labiales in its leaves is extremely reminiscent of stinging nettle ( Urtica dioica), and since nettles are protected by their stinging hairs from herbivores, this similarity can also serve as a defense for deaf nettles.
Pseudopanax thick-leaved plant ( Pseudopanax crassifolius) when young, has small narrow leaves that visually merge with the forest floor, and when the trunk grows to 3 meters (the maximum height of the now extinct herbivorous flightless bird moa), it releases leaves of ordinary shape, color and size.
Convergence
But along with this, Lately such cases of similarity between two distant animal species have become known that are by no means suitable for Wallace's explanation of this phenomenon, according to which one species is an imitation of the other due to the greater security of the second species, thereby deceiving its enemies. Such, for example, is the extraordinary resemblance between two European night butterflies: Dichonia aprilina And Moma Orion, which, however, never fly together, since the first flies in May, the second - in August-September. Or, for example, the remarkable resemblance between the European butterfly vanessa prorsa and a butterfly of sorts Phycioides, found in the Argentine Republic, with such a geographical distribution of these species cannot be a case of mimicry. In general, mimicry is only a special case of that phenomenon of convergence, convergence in development, the existence of which we observe in nature, but the immediate causes and conditions of which are unknown to us.
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As you know, nature does not create anything inappropriate. Any device that she endowed a living organism with is necessarily functional and practical. And of the camouflage abilities acquired by plants, insects, birds and other animals in the process of evolution, only those remained 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 camouflage of living beings can be divided into groups according to different criteria. The first of these are the goals of mimicry, which are divided into two groups:
- Aggressive: The predator blends into the background to ambush prey. Most often it is behavioral or color mimicry. Examples of hunting animals that use it can be listed for a long time: the lion merges with the savannah, the stripes of the tiger make it invisible in the taiga, the polar bear is invisible against the background of ice and snow.
- Passive: Designed to disguise an edible animal. It is more complex, even if expressed only in color.
Types of mimicry according to the techniques used can be divided as follows:
color mimicry
The most common type 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" the color all their lives. However, there are variations of color mimicry. The first of these is the seasonal color change. An example would be a white hare.
An even more complex camouflage mechanism is found in lower organisms, which can change color depending on the background on which they find themselves. To merge with the color of the surface - this is the essence of color mimicry. The most famous example is the chameleon, which is able to “color” itself even in colors. But it is not alone in its skills: the caterpillar Smerinthus tiliae remains green while sitting on a leaf, and turns brown as it travels along the trunk.
Copying dangerous species
In principle, it also applies to color mimicry. However, the option is even more intricate. Disguise as poisonous and not edible species used by insects, reptiles and amphibians. The mimicry of butterflies is the most diverse in this respect. For example, a harmless whitefish wears the colors of the wings of a poisonous heliconid. They can be distinguished only by the structure of the body. However, they copy not only relatives. The tropical kaligo butterfly has a very convincing pattern on its wings, similar to the eyes of an owl.
Yet disguise as dangerous relatives is more popular in the living world. An analogue of our snake - a striated king snake - is a deadly poisonous fighting color, and the harmless frog Allobates zaparo is painted under a very dangerous one, called Epipedobates bilinguis. However, dinner "eyes" - spots on the top of the head - are also a frightening device.
The main condition that must be met in order for the threat disguise to work is that the number of mimicrants must be lower than the number of copied ones. Predators periodically nevertheless “try on the tooth” inedible prey. And if it is at least half the time tasty, the protective coloring will cease to act.
Imitation of the environment
It is very common not only on land, but also in sea and ocean waters. To become like non-food is the essence of this type of mimicry. The round crab that uses it resembles a pebble, the palemon shrimp is a brown pimply algae where it lives. Such mimicry can also be temporary, behavioral: a hiding octopus draws its tentacles under itself, changes color (as we can see, there is even a combination of two types of disguise) and arches its “back”. Result: in front of you is a boring and unnecessary stone.
Controversy surrounding mimicry
IN last years many scientists began to doubt the reliability of such a method of protection - in any case, imitative. The fact is that disguise-mimicry is based mainly on optical illusion. But even they are guided not only by visual images, but also by smell. Accordingly, if it smells delicious, they can see that the stick insect looks like a twig and eat it. Scary coloring, in their opinion, is more effective - a bird will not fly close enough to check if a real owl's eye is looking at it from a tree. Moreover, leaf-eating insects often eat their relatives, confusing them with their natural food. And caterpillars, called shrews, are cut off by a gardener who confuses them with sprouts. However, it is much easier to deceive a person than one's natural enemies. However, from all that has been said, we can conclude that the question, what is the essence of mimicry, again remained unanswered.
In translation means - masking, imitation.
There are cases when animals acquire an extraordinary resemblance not only in color, but also in shape with individual objects among which they live, which is called imitation. There are especially many such examples between insects.
Caterpillars of moths (Geometridae) live on the branches of plants with which they are similar in color, and have the habit, attached with their hind legs, to stretch and hold their body motionless in the air. In this respect, they are so reminiscent of small dry twigs of plants that the most keen and experienced eye can hardly see them. Other caterpillars resemble bird excrement, fallen birch catkins, etc.
Tropical stick insect (Phyllocrania paradoxa)
Tropical stick insects from the Phasmidae family represent amazing adaptations: they imitate the color and shape of the body - some are dry sticks several inches long, others are leaves. Butterflies of the genus Kallima from South-East Asia, brightly colored on the upper side of the wings, when they sit on a branch and fold their wings, they take the form of a withered leaf: the butterfly rests on the branch with short outgrowths of the hind wings, and they resemble a petiole; the pattern and color of the back side of the folded wings are so reminiscent of the color and venation of a dried leaf that at the closest distance the butterfly is extremely difficult to distinguish from the leaves.
There are three main types of mimicry - apathetic, sematic and epigamous.
Apathetic mimicry is the similarity of a species with an object of the environment. natural environment- animal, vegetable or mineral origin. Due to the diversity of such objects, this type of mimicry falls into many smaller categories.
Sematic (warning) mimicry is an imitation in shape and color of a species avoided by predators due to the presence of special protective equipment or an unpleasant taste. It occurs in larvae, nymphs, adults, and possibly even pupae.
Epigamic mimicry, or coloration, can be seen in sexually dimorphic species. An inedible animal is imitated either by males or females. At the same time, females sometimes imitate several differently colored species that are found either in a given area in different seasons, or in different parts range of the mimic species. Darwin considered this type of mimicry the result of sexual selection, in which a defenseless form becomes more and more like a protected one in the process of destroying less perfect imitators by natural enemies. Those who manage to more accurately copy someone else's appearance survive due to this similarity and give offspring.
Corymica spatiosa(female)
Cleora injectaria
Cleora replusaria
Coremecis nigrovittata
Antitrygodes vicina
Antitrygodes divisaria
imitative similarity of some animals, mainly insects, with other species, providing protection from enemies. It is difficult to draw a clear line between it and the patronizing color or form. In the narrowest sense, mimicry is the imitation by a species defenseless against some predators of the appearance of a species avoided by these potential enemies due to inedibility or the presence of special means of protection. For example, a butterfly Limenitis archippus mimics a butterfly Danaus plexippus, which is not pecked by birds, because it tastes unpleasant. However, mimicry in relation to insects can be called several other types of protective adaptations. For example, a stick insect looks like an "inanimate" thin twig. The pattern on the wings of many butterflies makes them almost indistinguishable against the background of tree bark, mosses or lichens. Strictly speaking, this is a protective coloration, but there is a clear protective imitation of other objects, i.e., in a broad sense, mimicry.
Day butterflies. IN North America the most striking example of mimicry is the imitation of a butterfly Limenitis archippus(her English name- viceroy, viceroy) to another butterfly - Danaus plexippus(this large beautiful butterfly is called the monarch). They are very similar in coloration, although the imitator is somewhat smaller than the original and carries an “extra” black arc on the hind wings. This mimicry is limited to adults (adults), and the caterpillars of the two species are completely different. In the "original" - the caterpillars carry a bright black-yellow-green pattern, which they boldly show to birds and other predators. The larvae of the imitator species, on the contrary, are inconspicuous, speckled, outwardly resembling bird droppings. Thus, the adult stage here serves as an example of mimicry in the narrow sense of the word, and the caterpillar shows a protective coloration.
Mimicry is widespread in many regions of Southeast Asia and Australia. Among the butterflies that live here, danaids and many species of sailboats have an unpleasant taste for birds and other predators. Their appearance, as far as possible, is copied by completely edible species of sailboats and butterflies of other families. Moreover, sometimes sailboats and Danaids protected from enemies copy each other's appearance no less skillfully than their defenseless imitators do. A similar situation is observed in the tropics of America and Africa. One of the classic examples of mimicry is the African butterfly. Hypolimmas misippus, which, depending on the geographical area, imitates different types danaid and, thus, itself is represented by outwardly different forms.
Night butterflies. Most of Literature on mimicry describes it on the example of representatives of the Lepidoptera order, however, excellent examples of imitation are also known among other groups of insects and other animals. The caterpillars of one of the South American hawk moth species in a calm state look extremely unremarkable, however, if they are disturbed, they rear up and arch the body, inflating its front end. The result is a complete illusion of a snake head. For greater reliability, the caterpillars slowly sway from side to side.
Spiders. As you know, spiders are the worst enemies of insects. However, the spider synemosina ant-like is so similar to an ant that, only by looking closely, it is possible to recognize mimicry. On the other hand, some ants and other insects at certain stages of their development resemble spiders in appearance and habits.
Bees and wasps. These insects serve as favorite role models. Their appearance and behavior are copied by many species of flies. Some of the imitators not only use wasp coloration, but, when caught, pretend that they are going to sting and buzz almost the same as the "originals". Like bees and wasps also - in flight or at rest - many species of moths from several families.
Beetles. Thousands of species of insects imitate their appearance to animal excrement. Many beetles resort to this form of mimicry, which complement their resemblance to animal feces by pretending to be dead when they sense danger. Other beetles at rest resemble plant seeds.
Stick insects. The most amazing imitators include representatives of the squad of stick insects, or ghosts. At rest, these insects are almost indistinguishable from thin twigs. At the first appearance of danger, they freeze, but when the fright passes, they begin to move slowly, and if they are disturbed again after a short period of time, they fall from the plant to the ground. The famous representatives of the leaf family, living in the Pacific and South Asian regions, are so similar to the leaves of some plants that you can only notice them when they move. In this regard, only leaf butterflies, which on a branch are indistinguishable from a dry leaf of a plant, can compete with them. Some types of diurnal butterflies have chosen a different method of disguise: their wings are transparent, so these insects are almost invisible in flight.
Other forms of mimicry. Mimicry is one of the least studied areas of entomology. Unfortunately, traditionally, the main attention here was paid to cases of imitation in adults, and only recently has interest in the imitation capabilities of immature stages of insects begun to grow. Perhaps one of the most effective types of mimicry is the complete loss by an animal of external resemblance to an animated object and, in general, to anything specific (a kind of “anti-mimicry”). Bed bugs are known in which the shape of the legs, chest or head is so atypical for living beings that the insect as a whole looks completely “non-bug-like”. In some cockroaches, grasshoppers, bedbugs, spiders and many other species, the “dissected” body coloration, consisting of irregular outlines of stripes and spots, breaks its contours, as it were, allowing the animal to more fully merge with the background. Legs, antennae and other parts of the body sometimes look so “atypical” that this alone scares off potential predators. Harmless diurnal insects often achieve an outward resemblance to stinging or inedible species through the movements of their bicolored legs.
People often have to mimic socially in order to become "their own" in a new team or even society. In animals and insects, everything is much tougher: mimicry (situational or permanent) directly saves their lives.
Leaflet
Some insects are almost indistinguishable from plant leaves at first glance: both body shape and coloration are exactly the same as some leaves. Such camouflage copes with its task perfectly - leafworms are almost invisible to predators.
Most often, these insects are green in color, but yellow and orange specimens are also found. For greater resemblance to plants, leaflets are often randomly located on the body (but more often at the edges) dark spots, very similar to the dry areas of the leaves.
Jellyfish
Quite often, jellyfish are almost transparent, which greatly complicates the process of hunting them. At the same time, they are hardly visible to their own prey.
Many children like to play with jellyfish in sea water, but adults are not in vain not enthusiastic about such games: the tentacles of jellyfish are poisonous, and the consequences of a "bite" can be either a minor burn, the discomfort from which will pass in a few minutes, or a serious manifestation. allergies, life-threatening.
In general, these animals should be more careful.
glass butterfly
Glassware have transparent wings, but these insects are especially remarkable for their other feature: they are very similar to wasps. They have an elongated and relatively thick body, long legs with large spurs, and they really look like wasps and sometimes bees.
Glassware also lives in our latitudes, and some of their species harm trees - poplars, needles, apple trees, etc. While still being caterpillars, they make a hole in the bark of a tree, bite into the “juicy” tissue of a tree and gnaw through passages there.
As a result of their wrecking, the plant can throw off the entire bark or even die. But the benefits from them are also not small - they not only look like wasps and bees, but actually do their job: they pollinate plants.
Chameleon
This is undoubtedly the most popular animal that can change the color of its own body, thus mimicking the environment. It is traditionally believed that chameleons do this to protect themselves from predators, but now a new version has appeared, according to which the change in body color is necessary for these lizards not for self-defense, but for communication with each other.
Nevertheless, this ability also helps to escape from predators: a chameleon is able to “repaint” in just a few milliseconds, and predators simply do not have time to notice it.
It is likely, therefore, that lizards multitask and change their color for various reasons - both to communicate with members of their own species and to save their own lives.
bee orchid
It turns out that not only insects and animals mimic plants, but sometimes vice versa. The flowers of some orchids are very similar to bees and wasps, and this is certainly not a meaningless decoration.
However, the answer is simple: plants thus attract males, who as a result pollinate them, transferring pollen from flower to flower. Judging by the fact that the mechanism is debugged and works year after year, insects do not learn to recognize false bees and do not transmit information about deception to their relatives.
darlingtonia
This carnivorous plant has long trap stems that attract prey (insects) and at the same time save Darlingtonia from becoming prey itself.
Being similar to a snake, she scares away animals that could well feast on her. But insects, on the contrary, are happy to fly into death traps, because they emit a rather sharp and, for some reason, attractive smell.
Insects can no longer get out of the trap, so their curiosity turns out to be fatal for them in one hundred percent of cases.
Bicolor flounder
This fish is the guru of disguise. It floats as if on its side and, if necessary, can lie on the bottom, perfectly merging with the color of the surrounding surface. Depending on the habitat, the color of this fish may vary. H
Your deeds are good, evolution! Weird, but damn good and effective. Some flounders are able to change their color, as chameleons do.
And sometimes they just burrow into the sand, leaving only their eyes on the surface. In order not to take risks once again, so to speak.
leafy sea dragon
An amazing fish, a relative of the seahorse, has such an unusual shape that it is extremely difficult to distinguish it from algae. Having no special means for self-defense against predators that fill the seas and oceans, the dragon uses what he has - a stunning resemblance to plants.
If necessary, he simply clings to some algae and becomes completely invisible to predators.
The color of this fish is not constant and may change depending on the surrounding landscape. In general, everything is like a chameleon, only it seems more believable.
Fantasy leaf-tailed gecko
Another master of disguise, carefully pretending to be part of a plant, is the fantastic leaf-tailed gecko. It lives in the tropical forests of Madagascar and skillfully deceives many predators there, who are not averse to feasting on this peculiar lizard.
And even if some animal still grabs the gecko's tail, the potential victim will easily drop this part of the body and run away, leaving the predator with nothing. Well, almost nothing.
flower praying mantis
This praying mantis successfully camouflages itself in bushes and other plants, where it can be almost invisible to its prey. Of course, the specific coloration, which helps to blend in with the environment, protects the praying mantis from those who hunt it.
