10 Stunning Insect Mimics
Survival of the fittest sometimes means being a bit less than honest
Insects can be tricky.
Between the perfect camouflage of leaf insects and the fake wasp markings of some flies, you’re never really sure of what you’re looking at. This often happens when an animal has the ability to mimic another animal so it looks like something it isn’t. This guide will show you a moth that looks and acts exactly like a hummingbird, and another that is a dead-ringer for a bumblebee. You’ll see a caterpillar that can puff up its head and show big “snake’s eyes” to scare away predators, and another that looks so much like a fresh bird poop that no bird in its right mind would take a peck. Come have a look at these and many more brilliant impostors!
1. A Fly That Mimics a Hornet: Spilomyia Fusca
In the insect world, it pays to look dangerous. There are a lot of genuinely scary bugs that can sting or bite, but there are almost as many that simply look like they can. Dangerous insects like wasps advertise their power with bright “aposematic,” or warning colors — black and yellow are especially common. When a bird or a frog sees those colors, they think twice before going in for the kill. The wasp or bee never even has to use its stinger because the predator species has learned over eons of evolution to associate the pattern with danger.
Spilomyia fusca has the look of the hornet down to the last detail. A hornet has a pair of wings on each side, but flies only have one wing on each side. To make the insect mimic even more accurate, the fly’s single wings have dark shading that makes them look like they’re doubles.
The Mimic’s Model: A Real Bald-Faced Hornet
2. The Hummingbird Moth
If you see a hummingbird around your flowers, you may want to take a closer look, because there’s a solid chance that it’s actually a moth. It is very hard to tell these animals apart in the field, but one reliable difference is that the hummingbird has a fluid, flexible body and seems to “flow” in flight, while the moth is very uni-directional and appears to be a bit mechanical. If you can get close enough, you might notice that the moth has a long, flexible “feeding tube” (proboscis), while the hummingbird feeds with a thin, fixed beak.
With only these small differences separating them, it’s understandable that plenty of people see a hummingbird moth and come away thinking they’ve just seen an actual hummingbird.
The Remarkable Hummingbird Sphinx Moth
3. The Thistledown Velvet Ant
This next mimic adds a unique twist to the tactic of looking like something you’re not. The female thistledown velvet ant, Dasymutilla species, has evolved long white setae, or hairs, that give the insect the appearance of a tuft of thistle fluff. When the ant is moving on the ground, it bears a striking resemblance to a bit of down being blown along by the breeze. Predators are likely fooled by the insect’s resemblance to something that most frogs or birds don’t relish eating. The ant’s camouflage is even more remarkable when you consider that nearly all the other members of its subfamily (the velvet ants) are brightly colored with the typical red or yellow warning colors.
All In the Family: One of the Thistledown Ant’s Nearest Relatives
One Last Bit of Trickery . . .
The truth is, the thistledown ant isn’t an ant at all — it’s a wingless wasp! All of the “ants” in the family Mutillidae are really wasps with wingless females and winged males (illustrated above). When you see one with wings, you really realize that it looks like a wasp, after all. And that makes the thistledown ant just a little bit more strange.
4. The Caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail
This large caterpillar gives new meaning to the phrase, “you look like cr*p.” In this case, however, looking gross can provide protection from predators, especially birds, who are unlikely to to take a bite out of what appears to be a blob of poop. And yet this unappetizing blob is actually a perfectly edible caterpillar, just packed with healthy fats and proteins.
The larva of the giant swallowtail butterfly, also known as Papilio cresphontes, is a familiar sight in some citrus-growing parts of the country, where it’s known as the “orange dog.” It feeds, you guessed it, on the leaves of citrus trees, especially orange but also lemon. It can get pretty large, about the size of an adult’s little finger. When it’s time to metamorphose into a butterfly, it becomes a chrysalis that is also well-disguised but in a less icky way. It looks just like a dried up leaf hanging on a twig.
The Beautiful Adult Giant Swallowtail
5. The Amazing Ant-Mimic Spider
Yes, That’s a Spider, Not an Ant
In the forests of Southeast Asia lives a spider that looks nothing like a spider. Instead, Myrmarachne plataleoides, also known as “the Karengga Ant-like Jumper,” looks exactly like an ant. It even disguises the fact that it has eight legs instead of six by waving its extra legs around exactly like antennae. This spider doesn’t bite and is quite shy, but the ants that it copies are well-known for their sting and their willingness to attack intruders. This peaceful and harmless little spider gains a great deal of protection from being a mimic.
6. The Spider Moth
Yes, That’s a Moth, Not a Spider
Discovered only in 2005, the Lygodium spider moth looks like any other pretty little moth, until you get down and see it head-on. Then the brown lines and other markings on the delicate wings come together to create a surprisingly credible impression of a spider on the prowl. The moth is of course completely harmless, but fronting like that would likely buy it some time as it escapes from a predator.
7. The Viceroy Butterfly
A Classic Case of Mimicry
This is perhaps the classic, and certainly the best-known, example of mimicry in the insect world. The monarch (Danaus plexippus) is the aptly-named king of North American butterflies and nearly everyone has a general idea of what they look like. The caterpillar feeds only on species of milkweed, a common plant that is protected from most insects that would eat it by a poisonous, milky-white sap. The monarch, however, has adapted to milkweed’s poison. The caterpillar happily eats milkweed leaves and even incorporates the toxic alkaloids in the sap into its own tissue. In other words, it becomes toxic, just like the plant it feeds on. This happens quite often in the insect world.
The viceroy, Limenitis archippus, a butterfly unrelated to the monarch, has evolved markings that are almost identical to the monarch. We’re not talking about a vague resemblance, but a down-to-the-details replication of the monarch’s wing pattern. Have a look:
Monarch on the Left; Viceroy on the Right
8. The Snake Caterpillar
Turn Your Head Updside Down, and — Voila!
What you’re looking at here is the underside of the caterpillar’s head and first few body segments. When threatened, it twists its front half upside-down and inflates the area around its head. This reveals bright “eyes,” complete with super-realistic details like light reflections. If you look closely, you can see the caterpillar’s six legs folded tightly against its body. Look in the dark area, right where the snake’s “nose” would be. The caterpillar’s head is in the pale area where the snake’s “lower lip” is located. Even when you know where to look, it can be hard to see these features of the larva.
It’s difficult to see, but the caterpillar’s six front legs are tightly bunched under the head, adding to the “snake” markings.
9. Leaf Butterflies
The Leafwing Butterflies
Technically, this is an example of protective coloring, and not mimicry in the true sense. Blending in with the scenery is a very common trait among insects and animals in general. Whether you’re a tiger preparing to pounce on your prey, or a grasshopper trying to hide from a toad, you’re going to want to avoid being seen. This is commonly called “cryptic coloration” and hardly any group of animals doesn’t use the tactic to some degree.
Some butterflies raise cryptic coloration to an art form. There are some butterflies out there with wings that look so much like dead leaves that even experienced naturalists pass them right by. Some even include markings that mimic damage caused by insects or decay. Among these is Coenophlebia archidona, a rainforest species that uses its cryptic underside to escape being noticed by predators.
Coenophlebia Archidona Looking Just Like a Dead Leaf
10. An Amazing Ladybug Mimic
The Lady Is a…Spider
We have already seen how a species of spider mimics the hard-biting weaver ant in order to gain protection. Here’s another spider that is also pretending to be something it isn’t. Spiders in the genus Eresus are beautiful mimics of ladybugs, but not so they’ll just look pretty — it also lets them sneak up on their unwitting prey. Eresus spiders, like all spiders, are predators that feed on smaller insects. Many spin webs, but many others simply prowl around looking for smaller insects to ambush.
Resources
The following sites were consulted for this guide:
nature.com/articles/ncomms13735 — Insect mimicry of plants dates back to the PermianRomain Garrouste
https://www.wild-facts.com/2013/lygodium-spider-moth/
academic.oup.com/beheco/article/18/2/337/203302 — Mimicry in hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae): a field test of the competitive mimicry hypothesis, Arash Rashed, et al
pnas.org/content/98/16/8928.full
