Batesian mimicry

Batesian mimicry occurs when a harmless species resembles a harmful or unpalatable species, deterring predators that have learned to avoid the model.

Mimicry: A resemblance between organisms that influences interactions with other organisms. Batesian mimicry is one form of resemblance that alters predator behavior.
Papilio polytes: An Asian swallowtail butterfly whose females include forms resembling unpalatable butterflies. Some females resemble toxic butterflies, while other females retain the typical appearance.
Henry Walter Bates: An English naturalist whose studies of Amazonian butterflies contributed to the theory of natural selection and mimicry. His observations supplied the pattern that Batesian mimicry was named to describe.
Receiver psychology: The study of how an animal's sensory and cognitive processes shape its responses to signals. Mimicry succeeds only if predators perceive and interpret the resemblance in a relevant way.
Natural selection: Differential survival and reproduction that cause heritable traits to change in frequency across generations. Predator avoidance can favor individuals whose resemblance to defended species is stronger.
Aposematism: The use of conspicuous signals by organisms to advertise defenses such as toxicity or unpalatability. The harmful model often advertises its defenses with warning colors that the mimic copies.
Pachliopta aristolochiae: A toxic swallowtail butterfly known as the common rose, with conspicuous red and black markings. It serves as a model for mimetic female forms of Papilio polytes.
On the Arrangements of the Different Species of Mimetic Butterflies: Henry Walter Bates's 1862 paper explaining resemblances among Amazonian butterfly species. Bates used butterfly examples to argue that harmless species could gain protection by resembling distasteful ones.
Signal detection theory: A framework for understanding decisions made under uncertainty by balancing detection benefits and costs. It helps describe how predators decide whether ambiguous prey resemble dangerous models.
Frequency-dependent selection: Selection whose effects on a type depend on how common or rare that type is. The benefits of mimicry change with the relative abundance of models and mimics.

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