Mullerian mimicry

Mül·le·ri·an mimicry

noun

A form of protective mimicry, especially in insects, in which two or more distasteful or harmful species closely resemble each other and are therefore avoided equally by all their predators.

Origin of Mullerian mimicry

After Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller (1821-1897), German-born Brazilian zoologist

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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"Mullerian mimicry." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 12 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mullerian-mimicry>.

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A form of protective mimicry in which two or more poisonous or unpalatable species closely resemble each other and are therefore avoided equally by all their natural predators. The similarity in coloration between the monarch and viceroy butterflies, once considered an example of Batesian mimicry, is now generally considered as Müllerian mimicry because the viceroy is thought to be as bad-tasting to birds as the monarch. Müllerian mimicry is named after the German-born Brazilian zoologist Fritz Müller (1821–97).

Compare aggressive mimicry