In the present day world of fierce competition and the mile high expectations, to be perfect and best is everything. You might have often come across some of the most used or rather exploited punchlines like- “Be yourself!” or “Be unique!” or even the medieval English phrase of, “Don’t follow the heard!”
And while to us humans, it may seem like a marvelous idea and a success mantra – to lead a unique way of life, it’s not so in the animal world. In fact the exact opposite is portrayed by the animal kingdom. To survive the wilderness, its essential to either find a meal or else end up being a meal. Apparently, staying hidden from one’s predators is one of the most important characteristics for an animal to survive.
And one of the best known adaptations in the nature, to stay un-detected from one’s natural predators is ‘Mimicry’.
Yes, you guessed that right – “Being yourself and flaunting your individualistic or unique valor” is not always good for you, if you are a permanent resident of the wild. So, the animals instead of “Being unique” try to mimic someone else, to act like something that they are not or even mesh into the background colors, thus deterring their enemies easily from their trail and save oneself.
What is Mimicry?
Mimicry has been derived from the Latin word, ‘Mimicus’ which simply means simulation or imitation of something or someone.
It is when one organism adapts itself to closely resemble another organism or an in-animate object in the surrounding, by their actions, coloring or shape. It provides the animal with an advantage to remain concealed from their predators, or to get closer to their preys without being depicted. One of the classic example of mimicry is seen in the Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) that imitates the monarch butterfly (Dananus plexippus) right down to it’s coloring and spots.
The reason behind this is that the monarch butterfly are an unpalatable species because of the presence of a toxic called cardiac glycoside and their predators (mostly birds), avoid eating these brightly colored insects.
Thus, the viceroy butterfly which is a perfectly harmless and a palatable species, avoids its predator by mimicking the noxious monarch butterfly and it’s brightly colored wings.
Types of Mimicry:
The classification of mimicry is based on what function the animal achieves from the imitation and are thus broadly divided into three types:
- Protective mimicry
- Aggressive mimicry
- Conscious mimicry
Protective mimicry:
As the name suggests, it is mostly utilized by insects in order to protect themselves from their enemies by imitating another organism or a natural object in it’s actions, color or looks. Either through concealing themselves or by warning off the predators.
If you are walking through a park someday, in a beautiful backdrop of green foliage and trees and enjoying the scenery and fresh air and suddenly you depict, to your surprise – that one little leaf is moving and then, slowly crawling away from the shoot of a tree. Perhaps, you would be startled.
But there’s no need to be. It’s most probably a leaf insect going for a walk.
Leaf insects of genus Phyllium, are a perfect example of concealing mimicry where their long green wings along with the flattened body closely resembles a green leaf, thus camouflaging themselves amongst the other leaves of a tree with ease.
Another such example of concealing mimicry is seen in stick insects of family Phasmidae, that has slender tubular body in either green or brown color, thus resembling a live or dead twig of a plant respectively.
Cryptolithodes sitchensis, commonly known as the umbrella crab are miniature crabs found on the costal lines or the sea shore beaches of Alaska or San Diego that have an extended smooth textured carapace of white or brown color that hide their walking legs, thus resembling the small pebbles that are often found laying in the sand.
Warning type of protective mimicry on the other hand, doesn’t conceal or camouflage – instead the organisms that exhibits this type of mimicry generally imitates another organism which is poisonous or unpalatable – thus cautioning it’s predators to stay away.
Therefore, in warning type of mimicry – a harmless palatable species imitates and advertises itself as another noxious unpalatable species, as seen in the case of Viceroy butterfly. A perfectly edible insect that displays the bright colors and spots on it’s body and wings, mirroring the colors of a toxic species – Dananus plexippus (Monarch butterfly) to warn off it’s enemies. This is also known as Batesian mimicry.
The sub order serpentes of snakes consists of many families under it’s hierarchy like the family colubridae that houses mostly non-venomous harmless snakes. These snakes mimics the different genera of snakes belonging to the family Elapidae which are highly poisonous and brightly colored by yellow and black bands so as to advertise themselves as venomous ones and escape their predators.
Another example of warning mimicry in snakes is seen in the Hognose snakes or Heterodon platyrhinos. It’s behavior is peculiar for more than one reason. Although it’s completely harmless to humans, it often spread it’s head like that of a king cobra and hiss and strike to act as though it’s very dangerous, when in reality – it’s anything but.
Another interesting thing about Hognose, is that when under threat – it can play dead. In the wild where predators only eat what they kill and often steer clear of sick or dead food items, this acting comes in handy, where it turns over and lies motionless, on it’s back, acting dead.
The Aggressive mimicry:
It is an old English saying that ‘It takes a thief to catch a thief’. And when enemies get better at hiding and deceiving – the predators must become even better at the art of camouflaging and imitation, to outwit and catch them.
The aggressive mimicry is the technique used by the predatory faction of animals to delude and entrap their preys in a wide variety of ways.
As seen in the flower crab spider – Misumena Vatia, with their plain white or yellow coloring. These spiders are easily camouflaged amongst orchid plants by imitating a flower. Thus, insects in search of nectar are often attracted towards these dangerous predators at their own violation and end up as the spider’s snacks.
In south East Asian countries another insect known as the orchid praying mantis could be easily found, sitting ram-rod straight on a stem, masquerading as a orchid flower and waiting for the small gullible insects, that would be lured to it, craving for nectar.
Conscious mimicry:
Carnivorous animals, except the scavenger faction enjoys the chase and hunting after a prey and the thrill that comes along with it, and ordinarily avoids eating an animal that looks sick or dead. Thus, one of the best way to have oneself discarded from their predator’s food palate is to play dead. This simulation of death is known as conscious mimicry. Also known as “Thanatosis”.
The American possum, Didelphis Virginiana when feels threatened, usually rolls over and lies immobilized on the ground- feigning death. Brown widow spider is another example where the insect more often than not, resorts to act dead in dangerous conditions.
The Nimbochromis cichlids the fresh water fish, feigns death in order to attract potential preys towards it. And some of the well known hard-bodied beetles feigns death and falls off the shoot of trees, to save themselves from the predatory birds.
Conclusion:
The world renowned eccentric Charles Caleb Colton, an English writer once said, that “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” And yet, one only has to look at the diverse animal kingdom, to realize how wrong he was! In a surrounding where failure means certain death, and staying alive is a success in itself, then without a doubt “the nature” has proved that imitation is one of the best way to achieve that.