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How can unprotected butterflies benefit from protected members of the same species?
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mimicry
Heliconius butterflies demonstrating Müllerian mimicry, a form of mimicry where one or more species exhibit closely similar warning systems. In this case, wing patterning and coloration among the species appear very similar.
Unprotected butterflies can benefit from protected members of the same species through a phenomenon known as automimicry.1
In some butterfly species, individuals or subpopulations may fail to acquire chemical defenses—such as toxins absorbed from host plants during the larval stage—because they fed on nonpoisonous plants. Despite being edible, these unprotected individuals gain protection from predators because they resemble the protected members of their own species. Predators that have previously sampled and learned to avoid the noxious, protected individuals will generalize that avoidance to all similarly patterned members of the species, including the defenseless ones.1