Study
Evolution of diversity in warning color and mimicry: polymorphisms, shifting balance, and speciation
Mallet, James; Joron, Mathieu
Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 1999
A review of why warning colours and mimicry rings are diverse when the logic of both predicts convergence on a single pattern, drawing on field experiments with marked butterflies, predator-learning studies and population genetics.
- Studied in
- Heliconius, Lepidoptera
- Sample size
- review of warning colour and mimicry systems
Müllerian mimicry is frequency-dependent: a rare pattern is attacked more because predators have not learned it, which drives convergence locally and produces sharply bounded geographic races rather than one global pattern. Batesian mimics are subject to the opposite pressure — becoming common erodes the protection they depend on.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The diversity of warning patterns arises from local frequency-dependent selection acting on a system whose logic would otherwise homogenise it.
How NatureHQ reads it
The frequency dependence is what turns mimicry from a description into a mechanism with predictions. It says why Batesian mimics stay rare relative to their models, why Müllerian rings have hard geographic edges, and why a mimic that becomes too successful undermines itself. It also gives the field its cleanest test: manipulate frequency and predator behaviour should follow.
- Heavily weighted towards neotropical butterflies, which are the best-studied case by a wide margin.
- Predator learning is inferred from attack rates on artificial or marked prey rather than observed directly.
- Geographic race boundaries have several candidate explanations besides mimicry frequency.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.30.1.201
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
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