Abstract
Mimicry has historically been used as one of the main arguments for supporting Darwin’s theory of evolution. This was the original emphasis of Henry W. Bates when he wrote: “I believe the case offers a most beautiful proof of the truth of the theory of natural selection” (Bates 1862: 513). The chronicler of evolutionary biology, Ernst Mayr , has written that Darwin’s “On the origin of species” was easily attackable as it was mostly based on deductive reasoning and included little proof except the analogy between artificial selection and natural selection. Bates’s discovery that allowed for demonstrating the mechanisms of natural selection in nature turned out to be a good argument against such criticism (Mayr 1982: 522–523). In later discussions, evolutionary adaptations, fitness landscapes and other conceptual tools of Neo-Darwinism have been used for interpreting mimicry: e.g. for determining the positions of the mimic and the model in mimicry systems (in Mertensian mimicry, Wickler 1968: 111–121), as criteria in mimicry typologies (Starrett 1993), or for theorising about specific mimicry cases. There have also been some alternative attempts to describe mimicry (e.g. Theodor Eimer’s (1897) orthogenesis , Franz Heikertinger ’s (1954) non-adaptationist view, Stanislav Komárek ’s (2003) historical interpretation), but these have been met with critical objections or have been marginalised in academic debate. In this chapter, I will discuss the connection between mimicry and semiotic evolution, whereas the general focus of this book still lies in the structural aspects of mimicry and horizontal communicative processes therein.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
A related concept is developmental scaffolding (cf. Giorgi and Bruni 2015), but I prefer here ontogenetic scaffolding as the former concept has quite diverse meanings in developmental biology, education and developmental psychology.
- 2.
Dalziell and Welbergen (2016) have recently pointed out that learning can fundamentally influence the evolutionary dynamics of the mimicry system. They note that besides receivers, learning by mimics and even by models (to find ways of reducing the mimic’s interference) also has an effect on the mimicry.
References
Akino, T., Knapp, J. J., Thomas, J. A., & Elmes, G. W. (1999). Chemical mimicry and host specificity in the butterfly Maculinea rebeli, a social parasite of Myrmica ant colonies. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London – Biological Sciences, 266(1427), 1419–1426.
Axén, A. H. (2000). Variation in behavior of lycaenid larvae when attended by different ant species. Evolutionary Ecology, 14(7), 611–625.
Ayasse, M., Gögler, J., & Stökl, J. (2010). Pollinator-driven speciation in sexually deceptive orchids of the genus Ophrys. In M. Glaubrecht (Ed.), Evolution in action—Adaptive radiations and the origins of biodiversity (pp. 101–118). Berlin: Springer.
Baldwin, J. M. (1896). A new factor in evolution. The American Naturalist, 30(354), 441–451.
Bates, H. W. (1862). Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley. Lepidoptera: Heliconidæ. Transactions of the Linnean Society. Zoology, 23, 495–566.
Berry, R. J. (1990). Industrial melanism and peppered moths (Biston betularia (L.)). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 39(4), 301–322.
Brakefield, P. M., & French, V. (1999). Butterfly wings: the evolution of development of colour patterns. Bioessays, 21, 391–401.
Caldwell, G. S., & Rubinoff, R. W. (1983). Avoidance of venomous sea snakes by naive herons and egrets. The Auk, 100(1), 195–198.
Darwin, C. R. (1872a). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: John Murray.
Darwin, C. R. (1872b). The origin of species by means of natural selection (6th ed.). London: John Murray.
Davies, N. B., & Welbergen, J. A. (2008). Cuckoo-hawk mimicry? An experimental test. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1644), 1817–1822.
Eens, M., Pinxten, R., & Verheyen, R. F. (1991). Male song as a cue for mate choice in the European starling. Behaviour, 116(3–4), 210–238.
Eimer, G. M. T. (1897). Die Entstehung der Arten auf Grund von vererben erworbener Eigenschaften nach den Gesetzen organischen Wachsens. II. Orthogenesis der Schmetterlinge. Leipzig: Engelmann.
Fiedler, K. (2006). Ant-associates of Palaearctic lycaenid butterfly larvae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)—A review. Myrmecologische Nachrichten, 9, 77–87.
French, V. (1997). Pattern formation in colour on butterfly wings. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 7(4), 524–529.
Gentner, T. Q., & Hulse, S. H. (2000). Female European starling preference and choice for variation in conspecific male song. Animal Behaviour, 59(2), 443–458.
Gibson, J. J. (1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Gould, S. J., & Vrba, E. S. (1982). Exaptation—A missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology, 8(1), 4–15.
Guilford, T. (1992). Predator psychology and the evolution of prey coloration. In M. J. Crawley (Ed.), Natural enemies: The population biology of predators, parasites, and diseases (pp. 377–394). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.
Guilford, T., & Dawkins, M. S. (1991). Receiver psychology and design of animal signals. Trends in Neurosciences, 16(11), 430–436.
Heikertinger, F. (1954). Das Rätsel der Mimikry und seine Lösung. Eine kritische Darstellung des Werdens, des Wesens und der Widerlegung der Tiertrachthypothesen. Jena: Veb Gustav Fisher Verlag.
Hoffmeyer, J. (1998). The unfolding semiosphere. In G. Van De Vijver, S. N. Salthe, & M. Delpos (Eds.), Evolutionary systems. Biological and epistemological perspectives on selection and self-organization (pp. 281–293). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hoffmeyer, J. (2007). Semiotic scaffolding of living systems. In M. Barbieri (Ed.), Introduction to biosemiotics. The new biological synthesis (pp. 149–166). Dordrecht: Springer.
Hoffmeyer, J. (2010). Semiotic freedom: An emerging force. In P. Davies & N. H. Gregersen (Eds.), Information and the nature of reality. From physics to metaphysics (pp. 185–204). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hoffmeyer, J. (2014a). The semiome: From genetic to semiotic scaffolding. Semiotica, 198, 11–31.
Hoffmeyer, J. (2014b). Semiotic scaffolding: A biosemiotic link between sema and soma. In K. R. Cabell & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The catalyzing mind: Beyond models of causality, Annals of theoretical psychology 11 (pp. 95–110). Dordrecht: Springer.
Hombría, J. C.-G. (2011). Butterfly eyespot serial homology: Enter the Hox genes. BMC Biology, 2011(9), 26.
Howse, P. E. (2013). Lepidopteran wing patterns and the evolution of satyric mimicry. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 109(1), 203–214.
Howse, P. E., & Allen, J. A. (1994). Satyric mimicry—The evolution of apparent imperfection. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, 257(1349), 111–114.
Ivey, A. E., & Hurst, J. C. (1971). Communication as adaptation. The Journal of Communication, 21(3), 199–207.
Jiggins, C. D. (2008). Ecological speciation in mimetic butterflies. Bioscience, 58(6), 541–548.
Jordano, D., & Thomas, C. D. (1992). Specificity of an ant-lycaenid interaction. Oecologia, 91(3), 431–438.
Kampis, G. (1998). Evolution as its own cause and effect. In G. Van De Vijver, S. N. Salthe, & M. Delpos (Eds.), Evolutionary systems. Biological and epistemological perspectives on selection and self-organization (pp. 255–266). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Kikuchi, D. W., & Pfennig, D. W. (2013). Imperfect mimicry and the limits of natural selection. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 88(4), 297–315.
Kleisner, K. (2010). Re-semblance and re-evolution: Paramorphism and semiotic co-option may explain the re-evolution of similar phenotypes. Sign Systems Studies, 38(1/4), 378–392.
Kleisner, K. (2011). Perceive, co-opt, modify, and live! Organism as a centre of experience. Biosemiotics, 4, 223–241.
Kleisner, K., & Maran, T. (2014). Visual communication in animals: Applying Portmannian and Uexküllian biosemiotic approach. In D. Machin (Ed.), Visual communication (Handbooks of communication science 4) (pp. 559–676). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Komárek, S. (2003). Mimicry, aposematism and related phenomena. Mimetism in nature and the history of its study. München: Lincom Europa.
Kull, K. (1998). Semiotic ecology: Different natures in the semiosphere. Sign Systems Studies, 26, 344–371.
Lindholm, M. (2015). DNA dispose, but subjects decide. Learning and the extended synthesis. Biosemiotics, 8(3), 443–461.
Mallet, J., & Gilbert Jr., L. E. (1995). Why are there so many mimicry rings? Correlations between habitat, behaviour and mimicry in Heliconius butterflies. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 55, 159–180.
Mallet, J., McMillan, W. O., & Jiggins, C. D. (1998). Mimicry and warning color at the boundary between races and species. In D. J. Howard & S. H. Berlocher (Eds.), Endless forms: Species and speciation (pp. 390–403). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Maran, T. (2005). Mimikri kui kommunikatsioonisemiootiline fenomen [Mimicry as a communication semiotic phenomenon] (Dissertationes Semioticae Universitatis Tartuensis 7). Tartu: Tartu University Press.
Maran, T. (2011). Becoming a sign: The mimic’s activity in biological mimicry. Biosemiotics, 4(2), 243–257.
Maran, T. (2014b). Semiotization of matter. A hybrid zone between biosemiotics and material ecocriticism. In S. Iovino & S. Oppermann (Eds.), Material Ecocriticism (pp. 141–154). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Maran, T., & Kleisner, K. (2010). Towards an evolutionary biosemiotics: Semiotic selection and semiotic co-option. Biosemiotics, 3(2), 189–200.
Mayr, E. (1982). The growth of biological thought: Diversity, evolution, and inheritance. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Monteiro, A. (2014). Origin, development, and evolution of butterfly eyespots. Annual Review of Entomology, 60, 253–271.
Monteiro, A., Chen, B., Ramos, D. M., Oliver, J. C., Tong, X., Guo, M., Wang, W. K., Fazzino, L., & Kamal, F. (2013). Distal-less regulates eyespot patterns and melanization in Bicyclus butterflies. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution, 320(5), 321–331.
Mountjoy, D. J., & Lemon, R. E. (1996). Female choice for complex song in the European starling: A field experiment. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 38(1), 65–71.
Nijhout, H. F. (1986). Pattern and pattern diversity on Lepidopteran wings. Bioscience, 36(8), 527–533.
Nijhout, H. F. (1994). Developmental perspectives on evolution of butterfly mimicry. Bioscience, 44(3), 148–157.
Nijhout, H. F., Maini, P. K., Madzvamuse, A., Wathen, A. J., & Sekimura, T. (2003). Pigmentation pattern formation in butterflies: Experiments and models. Comptes Rendus Biologies, 326(8), 717–727.
Oliver, J. C., Beaulieu, J. M., Gall, L. F., Piel, W. H., & Monteiro, A. (2014). Nymphalid eyespot serial homologues originate as a few individualized modules. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1787), 1471–2954.
Otaki, J. M. (2008). Phenotypic plasticity of wing color patterns revealed by temperature and chemical applications in a nymphalid butterfly Vanessa indica. Journal of Thermal Biology, 33(2), 128–139.
Parker, H. G., VonHoldt, B. M., Quignon, P., Margulies, E. H., Shao, S., et al. (2009). An expressed Fgf4 retrogene is associated with breed-defining chondrodysplasia in domestic dogs. Science, 325(5943), 995–998.
Payne, R. (1977). The ecology of brood parasitism in birds. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 8, 1–28.
Payne, R. B., Payne, L. L., Woods, J. L., & Sorenson, M. D. (2000). Imprinting and the origin of parasite–host species associations in brood-parasitic indigobirds, Vidua chalybeate. Animal Behaviour, 59(1), 69–81.
Pernetta, J. C. (1977). Observations on the habits and morphology of the sea snake Laticauda colubrina (Schneider) in Fiji. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 55(10), 1612–1619.
Pierce, N. E., Braby, M. F., Heath, A., Lohman, D. J., Mathew, J., Rand, D. B., & Travassos, M. A. (2002). The ecology and evolution of ant association in the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera). Annual Review of Entomology, 47, 733–771.
Randall, J. E. (2005). A review of mimicry in marine fishes. Zoological Studies, 44(3), 299–328.
Rothschild, M. (1984). Aide mémoire mimicry. Ecological Entomology, 9(3), 311–319.
Schlick-Steiner, B. C., Steiner, F. M., Höttinger, H., Nikiforov, A., Mistrik, R., Schafellner, C., Baier P., & Christian E. (2004). A butterfly’s chemical key to various ant forts: Intersection-odour or aggregate-odour multi-host mimicry? Naturwissenschaften, 91(5), 209–214.
Sorenson, M. D., Sefc, K. M., & Payne, R. B. (2003). Speciation by host switch in brood parasitic indigobirds. Nature, 424, 928–931.
Starrett, A. (1993). Adaptive resemblance: A unifying concept for mimicry and crypsis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 48(4), 229–317.
Stevens, M., & Ruxton, G. D. (2014). Do animal eyespots really mimic eyes? Current Zoology, 60(1), 26–36.
Stevens, M., Cantor, A., Graham, J., & Winney, I. S. (2009). The function of animal ‘eyespots’: Conspicuousness but not eye mimicry is key. Current Zoology, 55(5), 319–326.
Thorogood, R., & Davies, N. B. (2013). Hawk mimicry and the evolution of polymorphic cuckoos. Chinese Birds, 4(1), 39–50.
Twomey, E., Vestergaard, J. S., & Summers, K. (2014). Reproductive isolation related to mimetic divergence in the poison frog Ranitomeya imitator. Nature Communications, 5, 4749. doi:10.1038/ncomms5749.
von Uexküll, J. (1982). The theory of meaning. Semiotica, 42(1), 25–82.
Weible, D. (2013). Approaching a semiotics of exaptation: At the intersection between biological evolution and technological development. Sign Systems Studies, 41(4), 504–527.
Welbergen, J. A., & Davies, N. B. (2011). A parasite in wolf’s clothing: hawk mimicry reduces mobbing of cuckoos by hosts. Behavioral Ecology, 22(3), 574–579.
Wickler, W. (1968). Mimicry in plants and animals (R. D. Martin, Trans.). London: George Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Wiens, D. (1978). Mimicry in plants. Evolutionary Biology, 11, 364–403.
Williams, L. E., Huang, J. Y., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The scaffolded mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39(7), 1257–1267.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Maran, T. (2017). Mimicry and Semiotic Evolution. In: Mimicry and Meaning: Structure and Semiotics of Biological Mimicry. Biosemiotics, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50317-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50317-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50315-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50317-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)