Another great shot! Do you know what species it is?
Beautiful! Love the colors on this beetle.Not a bug but a beetle. This is Ptosima flavoguttata, the splendour beetle. It is one of the bupestrids and this individual was in the Vaucluse region of France.
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Beautiful! Love the colors on this beetle.
Probably true! Most of these very brightly colored insects or amphibians, where one wonders what the evolutionary advantage is to being so visible against the background, seem to be advertising their toxicity. Here I am and you better leave me alone if you know what’s good for you!My money is on it being toxic to anything that eats it.
Probably true! Most of these very brightly colored insects or amphibians, where one wonders what the evolutionary advantage is to being so visible against the background, seem to be advertising their toxicity. Here I am and you better leave me alone if you know what’s good for you!
Great explanation! Nature in all its variety and grandeur. Endlessly fascinating.Yes, that's absolutely it. The dress code in nature is often black and yellow, black and red, black and orange, plus bright yellow, bright orange, bright red - stay well away, as no good will come to you. I'm advertising and I'm being honest.
The important bit is not to be lethal. You only want the predator to have an upset tummy, not die, so it learns to avoid your type. You might die, but the species will survive, and that is all that matters to the selfish gene.
An interesting form of mimicry is when species that are lethal mimic species that are not lethal. Some lethal snakes do this, by mimicking non-lethal snakes. How it works, is, if you have to bite an attacker and it dies, it doesn't learn, but it leaves a gap that is filled by another that doesn't know not to attack you. So, you get constant hassle from a succession of occupants. However, if you are non-lethal and you bite an attacker, it survives after a period of being unwell. It continues to hold its territory and next time it encounters you it knows to leave you well alone. So, lethal snakes benefit by mimicking non-lethal snakes that are avoided by potential attackers.
And of course you have the most common form of mimicry, Batesian mimicry, where perfectly edible things such as hoverflies mimic nasty things like wasps by being black and yellow...
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Great explanation! Nature in all its variety and grandeur. Endlessly fascinating.
Great stuff! Let it not be said that our forum does not dispense good photos and good knowledge in equal measure!Aposematism was the word I was struggling to find. The fact that so many species use a similar dress code is tied in to Mullerian mimicry.
Great stuff! Let it not be said that our forum does not dispense good photos and good knowledge in equal measure!![]()
A great Black Wasp WCB, And thank you for your comment!Another great shot! Do you know what species it is?
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