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The different types of mimicry commonly discussed can be confusing if not adequately differentiated. In order to make understanding this chapter easier, definitions and examples of the major mimetic categories are outlined below, followed briefly by a discussion of imperfect mimicry, a unique type of mimicry that differs from the commonly recognized ones.
| Mimicry | Definition | Example |
| Batesian | Mimic shares protective signals with model but does not have anti-predator attribute | Hoverflies mimic vespid wasp color patterns, but do not have a stinger |
| Müllerian | Mimic shares protective signals and anti-predator attributes with model | Bees, vespid wasps, and sphecoid wasps have the aposematic yellow and black stripes, and also have stingers* |
| Aggressive | Predators or parasites that share attributes with their harmless prey so as to avoid detection | Social parasitic ants Acromyrmex insinuator avoid detection by their hosts A. echinatior via chemical insignificance*** |
| Wasmannian | Mimic resembles model with which it lives in a social nest or colony | Social insects: ant, bee, wasp inquilines |
*Females of these species are harmful to predators. In most of these species, males are harmless and are considered automimics of females.
**Definitions and examples from Rettenmeyer 1970.
***From Lambardi et al. 2007.
In the leafcutter ants, Acromyrmex insinuator , a unique form of mimicry is employed in order to usurp a host colony of the heterospecific A. echinatior (Lambardi et al. 2007). While some social parasites use force to take over a colony, most use a less aggressive form of chemical disguise to trick the host colony into allowing the thievery. Chemical mimicry is the production of recognition cues similar to the host that allows for an intruder species to be falsely accepted as a member of the host species. Most insects that mimic behaviors and intrude on host colonies use this method of chemical disguise in order to avoid being caught. However, the Acromyrmex ants utilize a special variant of this chemical mimicry known as chemical insignificance . In this form, the ants use stealth rather than trickery to take over a host colony (Lambardi et al. 2007). They minimize the production of all recognition cues to reduce the intruder response elicited by the resident colony workers and soldiers ( [link] ). Due to this chemical stealth, the specialized social parasites A. insinuator were able to significantly avoid aggressive encounters – menacing threats, bites, and fatal attack – when compared to a similar amount of neutral inspection in the form of attenuation by the host A. echinatior .
Most Hymenopteran social parasites, however, utilize chemical mimicry in order to usurp a host colony. One of the best examples of this occurs in the paper wasps. It has been well documented and substantiated that social parasite paper wasps modify their cuticular hydrocarbon profiles in order to falsely establish nestmate recognition between themselves and the host species. This has been successfully shown by studies delineating that Polistes sulcifer parasitizes P. dominulus (Dani et al. 2001, Howard&Blomquist 2005, Sledge et al. 2001, Turillazzi et al. 2001) and that P. atrimandibularis parasitizes P. biglumis (Lorenzi 2003, Howard&Blomquist 2005, Bagnères et al. 1996) using this mechanism of chemical mimicry. These parasite wasps enter host nests, fight the queens for control as the alpha-individual, and then alter their cuticular hydrocarbon profiles in order to establish nestmate recognition amongst the worker wasps ( [link] ). The parasite wasps literally disguise themselves in order to obtain control of and parasitize host nests before moving on to the next!
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