Mimicry in motion and morphology: do information limitation, trade-offs or compensation relax selection for mimetic accuracy?

ABSTRACT: Many animals mimic dangerous or undesirable prey as a defence from predators. We would expect predators to reliably avoid animals that closely resemble dangerous prey, yet imperfect mimics are common across a wide taxonomic range. There have been many hypotheses suggested to explain imperfect mimicry, but comparative tests across multiple mimicry systems are needed to determine which are applicable, and which-if any-represent general principles governing imperfect mimicry. We tested four hypotheses on Australian ant mimics and found support for only one of them: the information limitation hypothesis. A predator with incomplete information will be unable to discriminate some poor mimics from their models. We further present a simple model to show that predators are likely to operate with in

SUBMITTER: McLean DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8187996 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature