The term used to describe a harmless organism resembling a harmful one is _____.

• A. Mullerian mimicry
• B. Batesian mimicry
• C. Camouflage
• D. Aggressive mimicry

Answer: (B)

In Batesian mimicry, a harmless species imitates the appearance of a harmful or defended species to fool predators into thinking it is dangerous. The idea is that predators learn to avoid the warning signals (like bright colors) associated with the harmful species, so the harmless mimic gains protection without incurring the costs of being toxic or venomous. This differs from Mullerian mimicry, where two or more harmful species share the same warning pattern to reinforce avoidance; it also differs from camouflage, which aims to hide rather than imitate another species, and from aggressive mimicry, where a predator imitates something benign to lure prey. An example is a harmless butterfly that looks like a monarch, or a nonvenomous king snake that resembles a venomous coral snake.