The origin of mimicry

One of the most remarkable phenomena in nature is mimicry,
in which one species (the mimic) evolves to imitate the phenotype of
another species (the model). Several reasons for the origin of mimicry
have been proposed, but no definitive conclusion has been found yet. In
this paper, we test several of these hypotheses through an agent based coevolutionary
model. In particular, we consider two possible alternatives:
(1) Deception, in which mimics evolve to imitate the phenotype of models
that predators avoid to eat, and (2) Coincidence, in which models evolve
a warning color to avoid predation, which coincidentally benefits the
mimics. Our agent-based simulation shows that both these hypotheses
are plausible origins for mimicry, but also that once a mimicry situation
has been established through coincidence, mimics will take advantage of
the possibility for deception as well.