Animal mimicry is designed to fool other species – including potential predators – but is it possible that it could confuse members of their own kind? Stuart Blackman investigates <\/p>
Visually similar species might use odours and sounds for identification. But just because two species look the same to our eyes \u2013 or more importantly, to a predator\u2019s \u2013 they can appear very different to each other.<\/strong><\/p> Take the remarkably similar wing patterns of tropical American Heliconius and Eueides butterflies. <\/p> Mutual mimicry between these toxic insects boosts the deterrent power of their warning pattern, much like bees and wasps have converged on yellow and black stripes.<\/p> But while the yellow patches on the wings of Heliconius reflect UV light \u2013 which is not visible to their vertebrate predators \u2013 those of Eueides do not.<\/p> This subtle yet significant difference provides a private channel of visual communication that prevents mistaken identity during courtship. <\/p> Animal mimicry is designed to fool other species – including potential predators – but is it possible that it could confuse members of their own kind? Stuart Blackman investigates <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41242,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own.jpg",1996,1501,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own-300x226.jpg",300,226,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own-768x578.jpg",768,578,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own-1024x770.jpg",800,602,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own-1536x1155.jpg",1536,1155,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/how-do-mimetic-animals-recognise-their-own-species-do-they-ever-mistake-a-different-species-for-their-own.jpg",1996,1501,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Animal mimicry is designed to fool other species - including potential predators - but is it possible that it could confuse members of their own kind? Stuart Blackman investigates","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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