Survival benefits in mimicry: A quantitative framework

Alexey Mikaberidze (1) , Masudul Haque (1)

1 MPI-PKS - Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

Mimicry is a resemblance between species that benefits at least one of the species. It is a ubiquitous evolutionary phenomenon particularly common among prey species, in which case the advantage involves better protection from predation. We formulate a mathematical description of predation, to investigate benefits and disadvantages of mimicry. The basic setup involves differential equations for quantities representing predator behavior, namely, the probabilities for attacking prey at the next encounter. Using this framework, we present new quantitative results, and also provide a unified description of a significant fraction of the quantitative mimicry literature. The new results include ‘temporary' mutualism between prey species, and an optimal density at which the survival benefit is greatest for the mimic. The formalism leads naturally to extensions in several directions, such as the interplay of mimicry with population dynamics, studies of spatiotemporal patterns, etc. We demonstrate this extensibility by presenting some explorations on spatiotemporal pattern dynamics.

Mots clés: Predator behavior; Mutualism; Parasitism; Muellerian; Batesian

Alexey Mikaberidze, Masudul Haque. Survival benefits in mimicry: A quantitative framework. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2009, 259 (3), pp.462. ⟨10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.02.024⟩. ⟨hal-00554582⟩