As you know, nature does not create anything inappropriate. Any device that she endowed with a living organism is necessarily functional and practical. And of the 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 what the essence of mimicry is, it is necessary to understand what it is and what it is intended for.
Types of Mimicry
The disguise of living creatures can be divided into groups according to various criteria. The first of these is the goals of mimicry, divided into two groups:
- Aggressive : the predator merges with the background for an ambush for prey. Most often this is behavioral or color mimicry. Examples of animal hunters using it can be listed for a long time: a lion merges with the savannah, strips of a tiger make it invisible in the taiga, a polar bear is invisible against a background of ice and snow.
- Passive : designed to mask an edible animal. It is more complex, even if expressed only in color.
Types of mimicry by the methods used can be divided as follows:
- Color . Moreover, it can be not only disguising as a landscape, but also imitating other, dangerous species of fauna, if it is a passive disguise for purposes.
- The mimicry of the form is peculiar to insects and marine inhabitants and is also defensive in purpose. It manifests itself in visual similarities with the "uninteresting" objects of nature to the predator. Among higher animals, there are no examples of such disguise. After all, what is the essence of the mimicry of form? In optical illusion. And mammals in hunting are guided mainly by smell.
- Mimicry of sound. Also a protective view. Expressed in imitation of the sounds of dangerous creatures. An example would be a rabbit detective hissing like a snake.
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 creatures using this disguise “wear” the color all their lives. However, there are variations of color mimicry. The first one is a seasonal color change. An example would be a hare.
An even more complex masking mechanism in lower organisms that can change color depending on the background they are on. Merging with the color of the surface - this is the essence of the mimicry of color. The most famous example is a chameleon that can “color” itself even in the colors of a
chessboard. But he is not alone in his skills: the caterpillar Smerinthus tiliae retains a green color while sitting on a sheet, and is repainted in brown, traveling along the trunk.
Dangerous species copying
In principle, it also refers to color mimicry. However, the option is even more sophisticated. Disguise as poisonous and inedible species is used by insects, reptiles and amphibians. The most diverse in this regard are mimicry of butterflies. For example, a harmless whitewash 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.
Nevertheless, disguise as dangerous relatives is more popular in the living world. An analogue of our snake - the striated royal snake - wears the combat color of a deadly poisonous coral asp, and the harmless frog Allobates zaparo is painted under a very dangerous one called Epipedobates bilinguis. However, supper "eyes" - spots on the top of the head - are also a deterrent.
The main condition that must be met in order for the “threatened” camouflage to work is that the number of mimicrants must be lower than the number of copies. Predators periodically nevertheless "try a tooth" inedible prey. And if it is tasty even in half the cases, the protective color will cease to work.
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 palerm shrimp is the brown speckled algae of the Sargasso Sea, where it lives. Such mimicry can also be temporary, behavioral: a hiding octopus draws tentacles under itself, changes color (as you can see, there’s even a combination of two types of disguise) and bends the “back”. Result: before you is a boring and unnecessary stone.
Disputes around mimicry
In recent years, many scientists have begun to doubt the reliability of this method of protection - at least imitative. The fact is that mimicry disguise is based mainly on optical illusion. But even insectivorous birds are guided not only by visual images, but also by smell. Accordingly, if it smells delicious, they may not pay attention to the fact that the stick appears like a twig, and eat it. Frightening coloring books, in their opinion, are more effective - the bird will not fly close enough to check whether the real owl eye looks at it from the tree. Moreover, foliage-eating insects often eat their relatives, confusing them with their natural food. And the caterpillars, called surveyors, are cut off by a gardener, confused them with sprouts. However, to deceive a person is much easier than their natural enemies. However, from all that has been said, it can be concluded that the question of what is the essence of mimicry has again remained unanswered.