What is the imitative resemblance of animals called? Mimicry. Sheep in wolf's clothing

Protective coloring is the protective color and shape of animals that make their owners invisible in their habitats. Essentially, this is a type of passive defense against natural predators. The protective coloring is combined with a certain behavior of its owner. Usually the animal hides against a background that matches its color; in addition, it takes a certain pose. For example, many butterflies are located on the surface of a tree in such a way that the spots on their wings coincide with the spots on the bark, and the bittern, which nests in the reeds, stretches its body along the stems of plants in case of danger.

The role of passive protection in the life of animals

Protective coloration is especially important for the protection of organisms at an early stage of ontogenesis (larvae, eggs, chicks), as well as for adult individuals that lead a sedentary lifestyle or are at rest (for example, sleeping) for a long period. In addition, it plays an important role in conditions of rapid change environment. Thus, many animals have the ability to change color when moving to a different background. For example, agama, flounder, chameleon. IN temperate latitudes Many animals and birds are subject to seasonal color changes.

It is customary to distinguish three types of patronizing demonstration and mimicry. All of them arise as a result of the interaction of living beings in biogeocenosis against the background of certain environmental conditions. Protective coloration is a biocenotic adaptation developed as a result of the conjugate evolution of predators and prey. In addition to protective colors, there are also warning, attracting and dismembering colors.

Protective painting

As mentioned above, protective coloration animals always have similarities with the environment in which they live. For example, desert lizards or snakes have a yellow-gray color to match the vegetation and soil, and the inhabitants of snowy areas have white feathers and fur. This camouflage of animals allows them to remain invisible to enemies. It may be to some extent the same for inhabitants of completely different natural areas. For example, praying mantises or grasshoppers, lizards or frogs living in the grassy area of ​​the middle zone are characterized by a green color. It also predominates in insects, reptiles, amphibians, and even some species of birds. tropical forests. Often, protective painting may include a pattern. For example, ribbon butterflies have a pattern of many stripes, spots and lines on their wings. When they sit on a tree, they completely merge with the pattern of its bark. Another important element of protective coloring is the counter-shadow effect - this is when the illuminated side of the animal has more dark color than the one in the shade. This principle is observed in fish that live in upper layers water.

Seasonal coloring

For example, consider the inhabitants of the tundra. Thus, partridges or arctic foxes in summer have a brown color to match the color of vegetation, stones and lichens, and in winter it turns white. Also the inhabitants middle zone, such as foxes, weasels, hares, and stoats, change their coat color twice a year. Seasonal colors also exist in insects. For example, a leaf fly with folded wings is surprisingly similar to a tree leaf. In summer it is green, and in autumn it turns brown-yellow.

Repellent coloring

Animals with bright colors are clearly visible; they often stay open and do not hide in case of danger. They don't need to be careful as they are often poisonous or inedible. Their warning coloring signals to everyone around them - don’t touch them. Most often it includes various combinations of the following colors: red, black, yellow, white. As an example, a number of insects can be cited: wasps, bees, hornets, ladybugs, etc.; and animals: dart frogs, salamanders. For example, poison dart frog mucus is so poisonous that it is used to treat arrowheads. One such arrow can kill a large leopard.

Let's look at what is meant by this term. Mimicry in animals is the similarity of defenseless species with well-protected species. A similar phenomenon in nature was first discovered in South American butterflies, so in flocks of giliconids (inedible for birds) white butterflies were noticed, which were very similar in color, size, shape and flight style to the first. This phenomenon is widespread among insects (glassy butterflies disguise themselves as hornets, sifid flies as wasps and bees), fish and snakes. Well, we've looked at what mimicry is, now let's look at the concept of form, dividing and changing coloring.

Protective form

There are many animals whose body shape is similar to various items environment. Such properties save them from enemies, especially if the shape is combined with protective coloring. There are many types of caterpillars that can stretch out at an angle to a tree branch and freeze, in which case they become like a twig or twig. Resemblance to plants is widespread in tropical species diabolical, cicada adelungia, cyclopera, acridoxena, etc. The clown sea or rag-horse can camouflage themselves using the body.

Dismembering coloring

The coloring of many representatives of the animal world is a combination of stripes and spots that do not correspond to the shape of the owner, but in tone and pattern they merge with the surrounding background. This coloration seems to dismember the animal, hence its name. An example would be a giraffe or a zebra. Their spotted and striped figures are almost invisible among the vegetation African savannah, especially at dusk, when they go hunting. A large camouflage effect due to dismembering coloring can be observed in some amphibians. For example, the body of a South African Bufo toads superciliaris is visually broken into two parts, as a result of which it completely loses its shape. Many also have distinct colors, which makes them invisible against the background of fallen leaves and variegated vegetation. In addition, this type of disguise is actively used by residents underwater world and insects.

Changing color

This property makes animals unnoticeable when the environment changes. There are many fish that can change their color when the background changes. For example, flounder, thalassoma, pipefish, skates, dogs, etc. Lizards can also change their color; this is most clearly manifested in the arboreal chameleon. In addition, the octopus mollusk changes its color in case of danger; it can also skillfully camouflage itself under soils of any color, while repeating the most cunning ornament of the seabed. Various crustaceans, amphibians, insects and spiders masterfully manage their colors.

Mimicry of color

Studying the phenomenon of mimicry from the point of view evolutionary theory Wallace was especially involved. The most widespread and long-known phenomenon is the general correspondence, harmony in the color of an animal with its habitat. Among Arctic animals it is quite often observed white color bodies. For some - within all year round: polar bear, polar owl, harp falcon; for others living in areas freed from snow in the summer, the brown color changes to white only in winter: arctic fox, ermine, mountain hare. The benefits of this kind of device are obvious.

Another example of widespread protective or harmonious coloration is observed in deserts globe. Insects, lizards, birds and animals present here a huge selection of sand-colored forms, in all its possible shades; this is observed not only on small creatures, but even on such large ones as steppe antelopes, lions or camels. To what extent imitative coloring protects from the sight of enemies, well known to every hunter; hazel grouse, woodcock, great snipe, partridges are examples.

The same phenomenon is represented on the widest scale by marine fauna: fish, crayfish and other organisms living on the bottom, due to their color and unevenness of the 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 is possessed, for example, by cephalopods, some fish and crustaceans. This action is performed automatically, regulated, most often, by the retina. Light stimulation is transmitted to pigment cells with diverging fibers - chromatophores, capable of contracting, expanding and being surrounded by a halo independently of one another, creating numerous color combinations. I. Loeb defined the mechanism of this phenomenon as telephotography of an image appearing on the retina onto the surface of the body, diffuse transfer from the retina to the skin.

Among the pelagic animals of the sea, freely swimming all their lives in the water, one of the most remarkable adaptations in color is observed: among them there are precisely many forms, devoid of any color, with a glassy transparency of the body. Salps, jellyfish, ctenophores, some molluscs and worms and even fish (conger eel larvae Leptocephalidae) present a number of examples where all tissues, all organs of the body, nerves, muscles, blood, became transparent, like crystal.

Among the various cases of so-called harmonic coloring, adaptations to known lighting conditions, the play of light and shadow, are also observed. Animals that appear brightly colored and variegated outside of normal living conditions can, in fact, completely harmonize and blend in with the color of their environment. The bright, dark and yellow, transverse striping of the tiger's skin 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. The round spots on the skin of some forest animals have the same meaning: fallow deer ( Dama dama), leopard, ocelot; here these spots coincide with the round glare of light that the sun plays in the foliage of the trees. Even the variegation of the giraffe’s skin is no exception: at some distance the giraffe is extremely difficult to distinguish from the old tree trunks covered with lichens, between which it grazes.

A similar phenomenon is represented by bright, variegated fish of coral reefs.

Mimicry of form

Finally, there are cases when animals acquire an extraordinary resemblance not only in color, but also in shape to individual items, among whom they live, which is called imitation, M. There are especially many such examples between insects. Caterpillars of moth butterflies ( Geometridae) live on the branches of plants with which they are similar in color, and have the habit, having attached themselves with their hind legs, to stretch out and hold their body motionless in the air. In this respect, they resemble small dry twigs of plants to such an extent that the most keen and experienced eye can hardly see them. Other caterpillars resemble bird excrement, fallen birch catkins, etc.

Known cases external resemblance with ants (Myrmecomorphy).

Amazing adaptations are presented by tropical stick insects from the family Phasmidae: 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 Southeast Asia, brightly colored on the upper side of the wings, when they sit on a branch and fold their wings, they take on the appearance 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 in fact close range the butterfly is extremely difficult to distinguish from the leaves. Similar examples are known from marine fauna; so, a small fish from a group of seahorses, Phyllopteryx eques, living off the coast of Australia, thanks to numerous ribbon-like and thread-like leathery outgrowths of the body, it acquires a resemblance to the algae among which it lives. It is clear what kind of service such devices provide to animals in avoiding enemies.

Sound mimicry

There are many animals that use both defense mechanism sound imitation. Mostly this phenomenon found among birds. For example, the short owl, living in rodent burrows, can imitate the hissing of a snake.

Predatory grasshopper Chlorobalius leucoviridis, common in Australia, makes sounds that imitate the mating calls of female cicadas, attracting males of the corresponding species.

Predator and prey

An example of mimicry: a flower spider on an inflorescence

In other cases, camouflage similarity serves, on the contrary, as a means for predators to lie in wait and even attract prey, for example, in many spiders. Various insects from the group of praying mantises ( Mantidae) in India, while remaining motionless, present a striking resemblance to a flower, which is what attracts the insects that they catch. Finally, the phenomenon of M. in the strict sense of the word represents imitation of animals of another species.

There are brightly colored insects that various reasons(for example, because they are equipped with a sting or due to the ability to secrete poisonous or repulsive odor and taste of a substance) are relatively protected from attack by enemies; and next to them there are sometimes other types of insects, devoid of protective devices, but in their appearance and coloring they present a deceptive resemblance to their well-protected brothers. In tropical America, butterflies from the family Heliconids. 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 easily be distinguished from other butterflies and are striking from afar. All of them have liquids that emit a strong odor; according to the observations of many authors, birds do not eat or touch them; smell and taste serve as protection for them, and bright color has a warning value; this explains their large numbers, slow flight and habit of never hiding. Some other species of butterflies from the genera fly in the same areas Leptalis And Euterpe, according to the structure of the head, legs and venation of the wings, even belonging to a different family, Pieridae; but on general form and the color of the wings they represent so exact copy with heliconids, which in amateur collections are usually mixed up and taken as one species with them. These butterflies do not have the unpleasant liquids and 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 similarity they avoid attack. There are much fewer of them in number; for several tens and even hundreds of heliconids there is one leptalid; Lost in a crowd of well-protected heliconids, defenseless leptalids, thanks to their external resemblance to them, are saved from their enemies. This is camouflage, M. Similar examples are known from various orders of insects and not only between close groups, but often between representatives of different orders; Flies are known that resemble bumblebees, butterflies that imitate wasps, etc. In all these cases, M. is accompanied by similarities in lifestyle or mutual dependence of both similar species. So, flies of a 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 the nest owners.

Sheep in wolf's clothing

Some organisms, in order to avoid attacks from predators they frequently encounter, impersonate the predators themselves. Costa Rican butterfly Brenthia hexaselena appearance and pretends to be a spider Phiale formosa(the spider reveals the deception in only 6% of cases). One fruit fly copies the zebra jumping spider, which is territorial predator: having met a spider, the insect spreads its wings with spider legs depicted on them and jumps up to the spider, and the spider, thinking that it has entered someone else’s territory, runs away. In colonies of wandering ants in South America There are beetles that copy ants in smell and gait.

Collective mimicry

An example of collective mimicry among caterpillars

In collective mimicry large group small-sized organisms are gathered into a dense cluster to create the image of a large animal (sometimes a certain type) or plants.

Plants

Similar phenomena are known between plants: for example, dead nettle ( Lamium album) from the Lamiaceae family, its leaves are extremely reminiscent of stinging nettle ( Urtica dioica), and since nettles are protected by their stinging hairs from herbivores, this similarity can also serve as protection for deaf nettles.

Pseudopanax thickifolia plant ( Pseudopanax crassifolius) in youth has small narrow leaves that visually merge with the forest floor, and growing up to 3 m ( maximum height herbivore flightless bird moa, now extinct), produces leaves of normal shape, color and size.

Convergence

But at the same time Lately cases of similarity between two distant species of animals have become known that do not at all fit Wallace’s explanation of this phenomenon, according to which one species is an imitation of another due to the greater security of the second species, thereby deceiving its enemies. Such, for example, is the extraordinary similarity between two European moths: 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 similarity between the European butterfly Vanessa prorsa and a butterfly of the kind Phycioides, found in the Argentine Republic, with such geographical distribution these species cannot be a case of mimicry. In general, M. represents only special case 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.

see also

• Popular science film Wildlife: Camouflage and Protective Coloring
• Batesian Mimicry
• Müllerian mimicry
• Mimicry of Vavilov
• Aggressive mimicry
• Pseudocopulation

Notes

Links

• Wallace, “Natural Selection”, translation by Wagner (St. Petersburg, );
• Wallace, “Darwinism” (L., );
• Porchinsky, “Caterpillars and butterflies of the St. Petersburg province” (“Proceedings of the Russian Entomological Society”, vol. XIX and XXV, etc.);
• Beddard, “Animal coloration” (L., );
• Plateau, “Sur quelques cas de faux mimétisme” (“Le naturaliste”);
• Haase, “Untersuchungen über die Mimikry” (“Bibl. zoolog.” Chun & Leuckart, );
• Seitz, “Allgemeine Biologie d. Schmetterlinge" (Spengel's "Zool. Jabrb", 1890-94).
• Roger Caillois. Mimicry and legendary psychasthenia // Caillois R. Myth and man. Man and the sacred. M.: OGI, 2003, p. 83-104

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Translated it means masking, imitation.

There are cases when animals acquire an extraordinary resemblance not only in color, but also in shape to individual objects among which they live, which is called imitation. There are especially many such examples between insects.

Caterpillars of moth butterflies (Geometridae) live on the branches of plants with which they are similar in color, and have the habit of attaching themselves with their hind legs, stretching out their bodies and holding them motionless in the air. In this respect, they resemble small dry twigs of plants to such an extent 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 family Phasmidae exhibit amazing adaptations: they imitate the color and shape of the body - some are dry sticks several inches long, others are leaves. Butterflies from 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 on the appearance 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 a very close distance it is extremely difficult to distinguish the butterfly from the leaves.

There are three main types of mimicry - apathetic, sematic and epigamic.

Apathetic mimicry is the resemblance of a species to an object in its environment. natural environment– animal, plant or mineral origin. Due to the diversity of such objects, this type of mimicry falls into many smaller categories.

Sematic (warning) mimicry is the imitation in shape and color of a species avoided by predators due to the presence of special means of defense or bad taste. It is found in larvae, nymphs, adults and possibly even pupae.

Epigamic mimicry, or coloration, can be observed in sexually dimorphic species. An inedible animal is imitated by either males or females. At the same time, females sometimes imitate several differently colored species found either in a given area in different seasons, or in different parts range of the simulator species. Darwin considered this type of mimicry to be the result of sexual selection, in which the defenseless form becomes more and more similar to the protected one in the process of destroying less perfect imitators natural enemies. Those who manage to more accurately copy someone else's appearance survive due to this similarity and give birth to offspring.

Corymica spatiosa(female)

Cleora injectaria

Cleora replusaria

Coremecis nigrovittata

Antitrygodes vicina

Antitrygodes divisaria

Mimicry, in the narrowest sense of the word, is the imitation by a species, defenseless against some predators, of the appearance of another species, which is avoided by these predators due to inedibility or the presence of special means of defense. In a broader sense, mimicry is the imitative resemblance of some animals, mainly insects, to other types of living organisms or inedible objects external environment, providing protection from enemies. At the same time, it is difficult to draw a clear line between mimicry and protective coloring or shape. Mimicry is one of the least studied areas of entomology.

For example, the butterfly Limenitis archippus imitates the butterfly Danaus plexippus, which is not eaten by birds because it tastes unpleasant. However, mimicry, as applied to insects, can also 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 from the background tree bark, mosses or lichens. On the one hand, strictly speaking, this is a protective coloring, but there is also a clear protective imitation of other objects, i.e. This is, in a broad sense, mimicry.

There are three main types of mimicry - apathetic, sematic and epigamic.

Apathetic mimicry is called the similarity of a species with an object of the surrounding natural environment - animal, plant or mineral origin. Due to the diversity of such objects, this type of mimicry falls into many smaller categories.

Thousands of insect species imitate animal excrement in their appearance. 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 resemble plant seeds in their dormant state.

The most amazing imitators include representatives of the order of stick insects, or ghost insects. At rest, these insects are almost indistinguishable from thin twigs. At the first appearance of danger, they freeze, but when the fear passes, they begin to move slowly, and if after a short period of time they are disturbed again, they fall from the plant to the ground. The famous representatives of the leaf family, found in the Pacific and South Asian regions, are so similar to the leaves of some plants that they can only be noticed when they move. In this regard, the only ones that can compete with them are the leaf butterflies, which on a branch are indistinguishable from a dry leaf of a plant. Some species of daytime butterflies have chosen a different method of camouflage: their wings are transparent, so these insects are almost invisible in flight.

Perhaps one of the most effective types of mimicry is the complete loss of an animal’s external resemblance to an animate object or anything specific in general (a kind of “anti-mimicry”). There are known bugs whose legs, chest or head shape is so atypical for living creatures that the insect as a whole looks completely “non-bug-like”. In some cockroaches, grasshoppers, bedbugs, spiders and many other species, the “dismembering” coloring of the body, consisting of irregular stripes and spots, seems to break its contours, allowing the animal to blend more completely with the background. Legs, antennae and other body parts sometimes look so “atypical” that this alone scares off potential predators.

Sematic (warning) mimicry- this is an imitation in shape and color of a species avoided by predators due to the presence of special means of defense or an unpleasant taste. It is found in larvae, nymphs, adults and possibly even pupae.

Harmless daytime insects often resemble stinging or inedible species thanks to the movements of its two-colored legs. Bees and wasps serve as favorite role models. Their appearance and behavior are copied by many types of flies. Some of the imitators not only use the wasp coloration, but when caught, they pretend that they are going to sting and buzz almost the same way as the “originals”. Many species of moths from several families also resemble bees and wasps - in flight or at rest.

Danaid butterflies and many species of swallowtails, found in many regions of Southeast Asia and Australia, have an unpleasant taste for birds and other predators. Their appearance is copied as much as possible edible species swallowtails 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 Danaids and, thus, is itself represented by outwardly different forms.

The caterpillars of one of the South American species of hawkmoths look extremely unremarkable in a calm state, however, if they are disturbed, they rear up and arch their body, inflating its front end. The result is a complete illusion of a snake's head. For greater authenticity, the caterpillars slowly sway from side to side.

IN North America most shining example mimicry - imitation of the butterfly Limenitis archippus (its English name– viceroy, viceroy) to another butterfly – Danaus plexippus (this large beautiful butterfly called the monarch). They are very similar in color, although the imitation is somewhat smaller than the original and has 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. The “original” has caterpillars with a bright black-yellow-green pattern, which is boldly displayed to birds and other predators. The larvae of the imitator species, on the contrary, are inconspicuous, speckled, and look like bird droppings. Thus, the adult stage here serves as an example of mimicry in the narrow sense of the word, and the caterpillar shows protective coloration.

Spiders are the worst enemies of insects. Some ants and other insects at certain stages of their development resemble spiders in appearance and habits. However, the spider Synemosina antidae is so similar to an ant that only by looking closely can one recognize the mimicry.

An important indicator that influences the effectiveness of mimicry is the ratio of the numbers of the copied and copying species. An inedible form copied by another species must obviously be so abundant that natural enemies very quickly (after the first one or two attempts to feast on individuals of the corresponding appearance) learn to avoid it. If there are more imitators than originals, such training will naturally be delayed, and both the original and the copy will have to suffer from this. As a rule, the number of copied individuals is many times higher than that of copying individuals, although there may be rare exceptions, for example, when development conditions for the former are unfavorable, while for the latter they are close to ideal.

Epigamic mimicry, or coloration, can be observed in sexually dimorphic species. An inedible animal is imitated by either males or females. In this case, females sometimes imitate several differently colored species that are found either in a given area in different seasons, or in different parts of the range of the imitating species. Darwin considered this type of mimicry to be the result of sexual selection, in which the defenseless form becomes more and more similar to the protected one as less perfect imitators are destroyed by natural enemies. Those who manage to more accurately copy someone else's appearance survive due to this similarity and give birth to offspring.