Abstract
In a recent News and Views article1, Ruxton showed with admirable clarity how the ingenious simulations by MacDougall and Stamp Dawkins2 of defensive mimicry in animals highlight the role of cognitive limitations of predators in the generation of relationships involving mimicry. However, Ruxton misrepresents my work3, on which MacDougall and Stamp Dawkins have drawn, thereby giving a misleading impression that mistakes in prey recognition by predators are necessary for the generation of Müllerian mimicry. In fact, the ‘virtual predator’ on which MacDougall and Stamp Dawkins and others4 base their work quite ably generates Müllerian mimicry without depending on predator discrimination errors.
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References
Ruxton, G. D. Nature 394, 833–834 (1998).
MacDougall, A. & Stamp Dawkins, M. Anim. Behav. 55, 1281–1288 (1988).
Speed, M. P. Anim. Behav. 45, 571–580 (1993).
Owen, R. E. & Owen, A. R. G. J. Theor. Biol. 109, 217–247 (1984).
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Speed, M. Mistakes not necessary for Müllerian mimicry. Nature 396, 323 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/24519
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/24519
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