Insects and Batesian Mimicry

Insects and Batesian Mimicry
The concept of Batesian mimicry was first revealed by studies of butterflies. It was later found in many other insects.

Bees and wasps are among the most commonly mimicked insects. Mimics of these stinging insects are found in several different, unrelated families of insects.



The yellow-and-black American hover fly is one of many flies that mimic bees. For starters, there are about 6,000 other species in the hover fly’s insect family. Most of these species look like bees or wasps. Some species even hold up their front legs when they land and wave them around. This makes their legs look like antennae.

Another group of flies that also contains bee mimics is the aptly named bee-fly family. Bee flies are plump, fuzzy flies that resemble bees and also hover above flowers. A third fly family, the robber flies, mimics bees and wasps but preys on other insects, including bees.

Some kinds of beetles mimic bees and wasps. A North American beetle called the flat-headed bald cypress sapwood borer has wasp-like black and yellow stripes. These stripes are on the hard front pair of wings that all beetles have.

Most beetles hold up these wings (called elytra) and use a second pair of wings to fly. But the borer does not. It keeps its elytra clamped down while flying, so it still looks like a wasp. Birds seem to like to eat this beetle, but its wasp-like markings help repel them. Other species related to the borer also mimic wasps.

Bee and wasp mimics also exist among some kinds of moths that are active during the day. The hornet moth, for example, looks like a kind of wasp called a hornet. The yellow-banded sphinx and the bumblebee moth both mimic bees.

Ants are commonly mimicked, too. They are included with wasps and bees in a large group called the order Hymenoptera. Many ants bite or sting and contain an irritating, distasteful fluid called formic acid. These defenses cause many insects and other predators to avoid ants—and other animals to mimic them.

Some species of jumping spiders have two-part bodies that look more like the three-part bodies of ants. They also hold up their front legs so that they look like waving antennae. This leaves them with six legs for running and darting in an antlike manner. Species of beetles, flies, plant-sucking bugs, and the young of various insects also mimic ants.

Lycid beetles are also often mimicked. There are about 3,000 species of this beetle worldwide. Most smell bad, taste bad, and wear warning colors of orange and black. Birds avoid eating them. Batesian mimics of lycid beetles include some species of flies, the South American cockroach, and even other beetles.

Another beetle model is the tiger beetle, which bites with strong jaws. Among its mimics are the harmless young of the Malaysian katydid, a relative of the grasshopper and cricket. Some species of grasshoppers imitate tiger beetles, too.

Other grasshoppers mimic bombardier beetles, which can spray attackers with a jet of boiling hot fluid. Harmless cockroaches mimic ladybugs. One species of cockroach has wings that curl up so that it looks short and round, like a ladybug.

Butterflies, the insects that originally inspired the study of mimicry, still fascinate scientists with their complex mimicand- model relationships. The pipevine swallowtail is a beautiful blue-and-black butterfly with yellow, orange, and white spots sprinkled on the edges and undersides of its wings. It is found in the eastern United States and parts of Mexico. Pipevine swallowtail caterpillars feed on poisonous pipevine plants, storing the poison. The adult butterflies taste bad and are poisonous. A bird that eats a pipevine swallowtail gets sick. The bird remembers the butterfly’s warning colors and avoids it in future. Such birds also avoid the pipevine swallowtail’s otherwise-tasty mimics: female spicebush swallowtails, red-spotted purples, and female Diana fritillaries.

Another model for Batesian mimics is the common crow butterfly, a black, brown, and white bad-tasting butterfly found in Asia. The confused clearwing, a butterfly of South America,also tastes bad. It is mimicked by two other species of butterfly, as well as a moth.

One of the most dazzling mimics among butterflies is the African swallowtail. Females of this species have different colors; they mimic different bad-tasting butterflies, depending on where they live. In one area, females are orange, black, and white. In another, they are black, yellow, and white. In another area, they are white and black. There are more than a dozen color combinations in this species.