Today’s human world is rife with all manner of scams. Hapless people are fooled into parting with their hard-earned money via fake charities. Unscrupulous types pose as someone they are not in order to extort money, power, sex or other such commodities.
Truth be told, our species clearly has no monopoly on such skulduggery. The natural world is rife with counterfeit fauna. Our pre-monsoon June—and its onset in July—is prime time to observe all manner of bogus species in our region, as a host of fascinating species emerge from woodwork to engage in duplicity, each in its own perpetual Halloween masquerade.
Evolving to look like a species that can inflict pain or even death is a widespread adaptation to safeguard your own flesh. A number of Sky Islands invertebrates are masters of the “defensive mimicry” trade.
Given that some ants can bite, sting and even emit foul chemicals, looking like one might well prove useful, which is exactly what several local species of spiders do. Despite possessing eight legs instead of six—as well as one fewer body segment—for these spiders, the ruse is effective. Birds and lizards may pause when eyeing what appears to be an apparently distasteful tidbit seemingly capable of inducing pain.
Other spiders bear the black and red warning color pattern of female velvet ants, the wingless wasps capable of delivering truly memorable stings.
Flies also get in on this “I look like a dangerous hymenopteran” racket. Many resemble bees and wasps, and, as such, are not regarded by predators as a suitable meal. One fly species even walks on the ground with the jerky movements of a velvet ant.
Perhaps the ultimate in this costume show is a species of predatory robber fly that mimics our large and excruciatingly painful tarantula hawk wasps—a sting from which can apparently send you to the ER screaming in pain. The robber fly itself is huge, has blackish and red warning coloration and even flies a bit like its model species. Further, it actually launches successful predatory attacks upon paper wasps, easily dispatching such unlikely meals.
It doesn’t get much stranger than that…or does it?
How about evolving a fake set of eyes to lure the carnivorous attentions of would-be assassins away from your actual head? That’s precisely what some butterflies have done, foremost among them the hairstreaks. Quite a few types of these handsome butterflies possess not only false eyes at the posterior edge of their wings, but also fake antennae to assist with the trickery. To drive the point home that “my butt is actually my head and my head my butt,” they move and rub those sham appendages much as the actual ones are employed. I’ve seen quite a few hairstreaks with tiny bite marks on or near their false rear end, proving the efficacy of the deception.
Other butterflies have backups to even this devious arrangement. The pipevine swallowtail not only has proxies of its antennae in the form of its namesake tails but is toxic to boot. Its caterpillars consume pipevine (Aristilochia watsonii), a local toxic plant related to wild ginger, in turn developing their own distastefulness.
Shall we go a step further? The flower of the pipevine is indeed shaped like a human smoking device, but it may well have evolved its own illusory effects towards small flies, not humans. The shape, smell and feel of the predominantly maroon flowers seem to mimic the ear of a mouse. This in turn serves to lure in the flies who are searching for a blood meal. Instead, they accidentally pick up some pollen and (upon repeating the feat) exact fertilization of the pipevine. You can’t make this stuff up!
Mimicry can even net you a meal. Zone-tailed hawks that fly in the guise of turkey vultures, brown vine snakes that wiggle their tongues to lure in hungry lizards, and predatory loggerhead shrikes appearing as harmless northern mockingbirds are all examples of aggressive mimicry.
So, next time you find yourself telling even a small lie to benefit yourself or puffing up your chest and exaggerating your net worth to impress a potential mate, just remember: you’re in good company!
Vincent Pinto and his wife, Claudia, run RAVENS-WAY WILD JOURNEYS, their Nature Adventure & Conservation organization devoted to protecting and promoting the unique biodiversity of the Sky Islands region. RWWJ offers a wide variety of private, custom-made courses, birding & biodiversity tours. Visit ravensnatureschool.org