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When you walk in the park, or other places with flowers and plants, there may be a figure that suddenly passes by and even revolves around you. When you find that figure is yellow and black, and you have to "paste" with you, you will often exclaim, "Bee! stay back!" However, it may just be a fly in the cloak of a bee.

1. Aphid flies-it is right to be an undefined bee, and this "fly in the cloak of bees" is the aphid fly. The morphological imitation of bees is a kind of mimicry. First of all, let's take a look at the level of this "imitation". The first set of pictures below is a comparison between bees and aphid flies.

Fig. 1 Bee (top) and aphid fly (bottom) while the second set of pictures is a comparison between bumblebee and another aphid fly.

Fig. 2 bumblebees (top) and aphid flies (bottom) whenever they see this kind of picture, the editor can't help but admire: it can't be like, it can only be said to be exactly the same.

However, apart from admiration, careful readers may have found that this kind of "imitation" seems to be a little less soulful. Yes, let's sum up the differences between bees and aphid flies.

Let's take a look at the differences between different disciplines. Aphid flies belong to Diptera, which is the fourth largest order of insects after Coleoptera (commonly known as "beetles", representing such as lady beetles, longicorn beetles), Lepidoptera (representing moths, butterflies) and Hymenoptera (such as bees). They also belong to Diptera, including our summer enemies, mosquitoes, and "genetic heroes", Drosophila melanogaster. May I ask who DNA moved? )

Fig. 3 A picture that may evoke memories. The winged object gets its name from the fact that they have only one pair of wings, while the second pair of wings degenerates into a balance rod. The same is true of aphid flies.

Fig. 4 balance stick of aphid flies and flies | the picture is from [3] but this is not the case with bees, because bees and other bees belong to Hymenoptera, and their second pair of wings have not been degraded. It's just that when it falls on a flower, the second pair of wings is often covered under the first pair, so it's hard to tell without looking carefully.

Fig. 5 the two pairs of wings of honeybees there are many other differences between real and fake bees in addition to the differences in wings. For example, the antennae of bees are elbow-shaped as shown in figure 6I, while the antennae of aphid flies are awn-shaped as shown in figure 6K. Because bees need to collect honey, the last pair of feet are powder-carrying feet, which are thicker than the other feet. On the other hand, aphid flies do not collect honey, so both hind feet and forefeet are walking feet with similar thickness.

Fig. 6 types of insect antennae | the picture is from [1] of course, the editor feels that these are not the easiest features to distinguish between honeybees and aphid flies. The most obvious thing is actually in the eyes. After all, aphid fly is a kind of fly, its compound eyes are generally large, will cover more than half of the head, and it can be seen that it is composed of many small eyes. The picture below shows the compound eyes of aphid flies and several other flies.

Fig. 7 compound eyes of aphid flies (left), flies (middle) and fruit flies (right). The compound eyes of common bees are not as large as flies, are generally black, and cannot be clearly seen to be composed of small eyes.

Fig. 8 comparison between the compound eyes of bees (left) and bumblebees (right) | the picture is from [5] so when a yellow-and-black insect flies towards you, you can try to tell whether it is a real bee or a "master of camouflage" aphid fly by its eyes, antennae and other features. Of course, if you're not sure, you'd better avoid it.

2. Mimicry-is not the exclusive secret of aphid flies. Are there any other "masters of camouflage" besides aphid flies? In fact, not only are there many similar camouflages, but only aphid flies are disguised as bees. Deer moths of Lepidoptera and tiger longicorn beetles of Coleoptera, for example, are camouflaged by packaging their body colors and patterns as bees. Although compared with aphid flies this camouflage seems a bit "rough", but look at their appearance on the flowers, to a certain extent, you can "confuse the real with the fake."

Fig. 9 Deer moth (left) and tiger longicorn beetle (right) if you can persist (probably not insect phobia) to see here, you may want to ask: why do these species compete to disguise another creature? What does this camouflage mean to the camouflage and the camouflaged? In order to answer these two questions, we need to introduce an important concept-mimicry.

Fig. 10 mimicry of withered leaf butterflies in evolutionary biology means that one species acquires characteristics similar to those of another successful species in the process of evolution to confuse the cognition of the other (such as a predator) and thus stay away from or close to the mimicry species. In fact, mimicry is not a unique survival skill of insects. Fish, amphibians and reptiles, plants and even fungi may protect themselves or trick prey through mimicry. In addition, this imitation is not limited to another species, but may be a partial imitation of a species (such as leaves, flowers).

Fig. 11 bamboo worm (left) and orchid mantis (right) among insects, withered leaf butterflies, bamboo insects and orchid mantis are experts at imitating plant leaves, branches and flowers, respectively. When they are in the right place, we may have to observe carefully to find their position in the photo. Among them, withered leaf butterflies and bamboo insects hide themselves through mimicry to prevent prey (such as birds) from finding them. On the other hand, the orchid mantis can hide its shape on the flowers and catch its prey when other insects come to collect honey.

Fig. 12 withered leaf toad (left) and leaf tail guard palace (right) are also experts at imitating dead leaves, amphibian withered leaf toads and reptiles. And it is not difficult to find that each species will carefully imitate the leaf shape of the region in which it is located, and its color and vein lines are "copied" vividly!

Photo 13 Lili (left) and White Moray Eel (right) | Picture from [9] in the ocean, the white Moray eel is a terrible coral reef predator, covered with white spots. Lili also has white spots all over her body, and there is a black spot near the tail to imitate the eyes of the white-mouthed Moray eel. When it hides its head in a coral reef, its exposed tail looks like a white Moray eel hidden in a coral reef, scaring off other predators to protect itself.

Fig. 14 Bee orchid (left) and some epiphytic orchids (right) also have abundant mimicry behavior in the plant kingdom. For example, bee orchids attract drones to pollinate by imitating the appearance of female bees with flowers. ), this kind of mimicry is called Bowen's mimicry. And some epiphytic orchids look like Lantana Camara and milkweed, which are native species with nectar in flowers, thus luring insects to come to pollinate them. They are really "empty-gloved white wolves" in the plant world. This mimicry is called Dodson mimicry.

Fig. 15 Lantana Camara (left) and milkweed (right) in addition, rust can imitate flowers by infecting branches and leaves of Berberis and reflecting ultraviolet light on the surface of branches and leaves. Although people look withered and yellow, insects think they are flowers! Sometimes infected branches and leaves can even secrete nectar and produce the smell of flowers to attract insects. This is the special form of mimicry in the fungal world. It can be seen that sometimes mimicry does not need the human eye to look like, as long as it can "muddle through" is a good skill.

3. Mutual benefit or "hugging thighs"? Showing a variety of mimicry, we can discuss the question mentioned above, that is, what is the purpose of mimicry and whether it is beneficial or disadvantageous to the mimicry and the mimicry, respectively? As can be seen from the above examples, mimicry must be beneficial to the mimicry, otherwise they would not have "made great efforts" to evolve such forms or features. But the purpose of mimicry is diverse, sometimes to hide itself, sometimes to scare off predators, and sometimes to attract prey.

Fig. 16 pitcher plant we all know of a special plant, pitcher plant, which preys on insects by disguising them as flowers (containing nectar). The act of becoming a harmless species to attract prey is called aggressive mimicry. In addition, there are two very important types of mimicry-Bayesian mimicry (Batesian mimicry) and M ü llerian mimicry. Bayesian mimicry means that one species mimics another species, appearing poisonous or of no edible value, thus avoiding predators. On the other hand, Mu's mimicry is that both the mimicry and the mimic themselves are inedible, or a threat to predators.

Fig. 17 Bell's mimicry of scorpion flies is easy to understand, such as imitating dead leaves, branches and other camouflage or aphid flies imitating bees to scare off predators are Bayesian mimicry. What they have in common is that the camouflage itself does not pose a real threat to predators, such as stinging, poisonous and so on. Another example is that the end of the abdomen of a male of the family Chrysopidae swelled to form a scorpion-like tail, disguised as a threatening scorpion. It is generally believed that Bayesian mimicry is good for the mimic but not for the mimic, because the inexperienced predator may try to attack the mimicry after catching the non-threatening mimicry.

Fig. 18 Bees (left) and wasps (right) while bees mimic the pattern of wasps can be seen as a mimetic, because both species themselves can pose a threat to predators by stinging. As a result, predators will be threatened to learn from either side of the attack. In the long run, the two sides form a "common defense" because predators no longer dare to hunt any of them. It is generally believed that this kind of mimicry behavior is beneficial to both the mimicry and the mimic.

Of course, the above introduction only lists a small number of examples of mimicry, and the wonders of nature are far more than can be counted in a single push. I have to say: nature is really amazing!

references

[1] Cai Wan Zhi. General entomology [M]. China Agricultural University Press, 2001.

[2] Animals-melidae and aphids-bilibili (bilibili.com)

[3] it's so much fun, but only those who have time are advised to read it!

[4] can't you tell the difference between real bees and false bees? There are a lot of people who pretend to be bees.

[5] Information bumblebee Bombus formosellus (biodiv.tw)

[6] mimicry-Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia (wikipedia.org)

[7] Master of insect camouflage in nature: the behavior of simulated leaves can be traced back to the time of dinosaurs

[8] what are the creatures with strong mimicry? -zhihu.com

[9] how powerful is the mimicry of marine life? Five Masters of Imitation who know the Sea World

[10] four miraculous plant mimicry-brief book (jianshu.com)

[11] Plant mimicry-Encyclopedia Story Network (niaoleiba.com)

[12] Why do plants and fungi like to play cosplay? -Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (cas.cn)

[13] Mi Qingshan, Cai Wanzhi, Li Shujuan. Diversity of insect mimicry [J]. Insect knowledge, 2002.

Co-mimics have a mutualistic relationship despite unequal defences Hannah M. Rowland, Eira Ihalainen, Leena Lindstr ö m, Johanna Mappes & Michael P. Speed Nature 448,64-67 (2007).

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ID:cas-iop), author: Yun Kai Ye Luo

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