Deadly coral snakes warn predators through striking red-black banding. New data confirm that many harmless snakes have evolved to resemble coral snakes, and suggest that the evolution of this Batesian mimicry is not always a one-way street.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Notes
References
Stevens, M. Cheats and Deceits: How Animals and Plants Exploit and Mislead (Oxford Univ. Press, 2016).
Bates, H. W. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23, 495–566 (1862).
Davis Rabosky, A. R. et al. Nature Commun. 7, 11484 (2016).
Wallace, A. R. Westminster Foreign Q. Rev. 32 (1), 1–43 (1867).
Greene, H. W. & McDiarmid, R. W. Science 213, 1207–1212 (1981).
Brodie, E. D. III & Janzen, F. J. Funct. Ecol. 9, 186–190 (1995).
Pfennig, D. W., Harcombe, W. R. & Pfennig, K. S. Nature 410, 323 (2001).
Lindström, L., Alatalo, R. V. & Mappes, J. Proc. R. Soc. B 264, 149–153 (1997).
Fisher, R. A. The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (Clarendon, 1930).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Related links
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pfennig, D. To mimicry and back again. Nature 534, 184–185 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18441
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18441
This article is cited by
-
Predator-based selection and the impact of edge sympatry on components of coral snake mimicry
Evolutionary Ecology (2022)
-
Viper as a Batesian Model – its Role in an Ecological Community
Biosemiotics (2019)