An evolutionary adaptation where one species evolves to resemble another species or object in appearance, sound, or behavior. This resemblance typically provides protection from predators, helps in hunting, or aids in reproduction.
From Greek 'mimikos' meaning imitative, from 'mimos' meaning mime or actor. The biological term was popularized in the 1860s by naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who studied how harmless butterflies evolved to look like poisonous ones for protection.
Mimicry is nature's ultimate costume party! Some harmless snakes have evolved to look exactly like deadly coral snakes, complete with the same warning colors, while certain orchids mimic female wasps so perfectly that male wasps try to mate with the flowers and accidentally pollinate them. The viceroy butterfly's mimicry of the toxic monarch butterfly is so convincing that birds avoid both species, even though viceroys are completely harmless.
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