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Trish and I both are fascinated by insects. We're also fascinated by evolutionary phenomena like Batesian mimicry (when a harmless living thing has evolved to look like a dangerous living thing for protection). Like a harmless scarlet snake resembling a venomous coral snake. Or a harmless viceroy butterfly resembling a toxic, nasty-tasting monarch butterfly.
One of our favorites is the flower fly, also called the hoverfly. They are harmless flies, but each species closely resembles a stinging bee or wasp.
These critters rarely sit still, so it's not easy to get a photo, but THE FIRST PHOTO is a narrow-banded pond fly (a type of flower fly) that I photographed recently on our trip to Minnesota.
Notice the cream-colored markings on the black abdomen, which resembles that of a bald-faced hornet (trust me, you don't want to mess around with bald-faced hornets).
When flower flies are in the air, they even hover and maneuver about like stinging bees do. It's quite convincing, and it's difficult to tell what they are until they land. Then, if you look closely, you'll see that flower flies, like all flies, only have two wings. Bees and wasps, on the other hand, have four wings. Also, when at rest, flower flies normally hold their wings outward like in the two photos, whereas bees and wasps fold their wings down the length of their back.
But the illusion obviously works. Numerous controlled experiments have shown that predators do indeed avoid flower flies far more than they avoid harmless other flies that are not examples of Batesian mimicry.
THE SECOND PHOTO is a black and yellow striped flower fly, which resembles a ground hornet (also called a yellowjacket... again, not a critter you want to mess around with). But again, notice it has only two wings, and they are held outward while the insect is at rest.
What about you? Have you seen any cool examples of harmless animals or plants that resemble harmful ones (Batesian mimicry)?
Photo Credits:
- Narrow-banded Pond fly - Stan C. Smith
- Black and yellow striped flower fly - DepositPhotos