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mimicry

 
Dictionary: mim·ic·ry   (mĭm'ĭ-krē) pronunciation
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n., pl., -ries.
    1. The act, practice, or art of mimicking.
    2. An instance of mimicking.
  2. Biology. The resemblance of one organism to another or to an object in its surroundings for concealment and protection from predators.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: mimicry
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Similarity between organisms that confers a survival advantage on one. In Batesian mimicry, an organism lacking defenses mimics a species that does have defenses. In Müllerian mimicry, all species in a group are similar even though all individually have defenses. In aggressive mimicry, a predatory species mimics a benign species so that it can approach its prey without alarming it, or a parasitic species mimics its host. Some plant species mimic the colour patterns and scents of animals for the purposes of pollination and dispersal. Mimicry differs from camouflage in that camouflage hides the organism, whereas mimicry benefits the organism only if the organism is detected.

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Thesaurus: mimicry
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noun

    The act, practice, or art of copying the manner or expression of another: aping, imitation. See same/different/compare.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: mimicry
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mimicry, in biology, the advantageous resemblance of one species to another, often unrelated, species or to a feature of its own environment. (When the latter results from pigmentation it is classed as protective coloration.) Mimicry serves either to protect the mimic from its predators, as when the model is inedible or dangerous, or to deceive its prey (e.g., certain ant-eating spiders that themselves resemble ants). Mimicry occurs in both plants and animals but is most prevalent among insects, particularly butterflies and moths. The first scientific studies on the subject were published by English naturalists H. W. Bates (1862) and A. R. Wallace (1865). The Batesian theory is based on the operation of natural selection: if, say, a harmless snake acquires a deceptive resemblance to a poisonous variety it is then more likely to escape its predators and thus to survive and propagate, producing offspring with the same appearance. Examples of mimicry are the resemblance of the viceroy butterfly to the monarch butterfly, which is repugnant to birds; harmless nettles that resemble stinging nettles; and the many fishes, crabs, and slugs of the Sargasso Sea that resemble the floating seaweed masses they inhabit.

Bibliography

See W. Wickler, Mimicry in Plants and Animals (tr. 1968); L. P. Brower, Mimicry and the Evolutionary Process (1988).

Word Tutor: mimicry
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: The art of imitating. Also: The way in which some living things look like another or like some natural object.

pronunciation An insect called the walking stick is very good at mimicry because it looks just like a twig on a tree.

Translations: Mimicry
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - parodi, efterligning

Nederlands (Dutch)
nabootsing, namaaksel, mimiek, schijnvorm aannemend dier

Français (French)
n. - imitation, (Zool) mimétisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Nachahmen, (Zool.) Mimikry

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μιμική, μίμηση

Italiano (Italian)
mimica, mimetismo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - imitação (f), mimetismo (m) (Zool.)

Русский (Russian)
подражание, мимикрия

Español (Spanish)
n. - imitación, remedo, mímica, mimetismo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - härmande, efterapning, skyddande förklädnad

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
模仿, 拟态

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 模仿, 擬態

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 모방[품]

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 物まね, 模倣, 擬態

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تقليد, تمويه, محاكاة, أداة, وضعيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חיקוי, הסוואה, דבר המחקה דבר אחר או דומה לו‬

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
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