Hello everyone!
I'm back! (mild applause...) So I missed so much because, I went on a missions trip to Northern Ireland, I went to help my grandpa build a shed, I went on a vacay with my family for our summer vacation. And that took a while. I also had some school over the summer... (someone in the audience yells, "Stop making excuses!") But anyway, I'm back and I hope to stay that way.
Today I am bringing you the topic of Mimetic rings, or Mullerian Mimicry. This is when a very distasteful butterfly of one genus has a counterpart in another genus that has almost the same coloring and wing shape. This was discovered by a German naturalist named Fritz Muller, hence Mullerian mimicry. He first brought the idea up in 1878 and did a few experiments to prove his theory.
His idea was first found in insects from Lepidoptera, but later found in other insects such as bees, and later in frogs and also snakes. The most common representation of Mullerian Mimicry, for me, would be the Monarch, which you are probably familiar with, and the Viceroy, which looks almost exactly like the Monarch.
The monarch, in this case, is the very distasteful insect. Once eaten, the predator that made this unfortunate mistake, will not eat another monarch. It will then see the color on the viceroy, and not eat it.
I'm back! (mild applause...) So I missed so much because, I went on a missions trip to Northern Ireland, I went to help my grandpa build a shed, I went on a vacay with my family for our summer vacation. And that took a while. I also had some school over the summer... (someone in the audience yells, "Stop making excuses!") But anyway, I'm back and I hope to stay that way.
Today I am bringing you the topic of Mimetic rings, or Mullerian Mimicry. This is when a very distasteful butterfly of one genus has a counterpart in another genus that has almost the same coloring and wing shape. This was discovered by a German naturalist named Fritz Muller, hence Mullerian mimicry. He first brought the idea up in 1878 and did a few experiments to prove his theory.
His idea was first found in insects from Lepidoptera, but later found in other insects such as bees, and later in frogs and also snakes. The most common representation of Mullerian Mimicry, for me, would be the Monarch, which you are probably familiar with, and the Viceroy, which looks almost exactly like the Monarch.
 |
| The Viceroy, on the left, and the Monarch, on the right. |
Another example of Mullerian Mimicry is Papilio laglaizei and Alcides agathyrsus. Both of these insects live in Indonesia and parts of New Guinea.
 |
| Alcides agathyrsus, on the top, is actually a moth, while Papilio laglaizei is a butterfly. |
That's all I have for you today! Not much, but interesting none the less. I hope to be back within a week or two if school allows. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment