Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> One thing I haven't figured out is why poisonous prey animals (frogs, 
>> butterflies, etc) wind up being brightly colored.
> 
>   AFAIK the bright colors work as a warning signal. Predators learn to
> distinguish the poisonous prey by their color.

This clearly works poorly if the prey is so poisonous they kill the predator 
with one meal.

>   It would make little sense to just have poison but otherwise look edible.
> Both predator and prey get killed. With a warning color both live.

So which evolved first? At some point, you're poisonous enough to make the 
predator sick, but bright enough to be easily found?  I understand the 
hand-waving explanation. It's the details I don't really follow.

>   (By this logic it would follow that some species mimic the color of
> poisonous species. I wonder if there are examples of this.)

Yes, quite a few.  Both monarch butterflies (and their immitators) and that 
kind of snake with the red/black/yellow stripes whose name I forget springs 
to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batesian_mimicry

Oh, there's the snake. GIYF.  Can you tell which is poisonous and which 
isn't? Notice the different order of the stripes.

http://www.pestproducts.com/images/coral.jpg

http://www.pestproducts.com/images/sckng.jpg
-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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