Müllerian mimicry
Mimetismo mülleriano
- Date
- 1878 · confidence high
- Place
- Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil
- Credited to
- Fritz Müller
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Müller proposed that unpalatable species sharing the same colour pattern benefit each other because predators learn after fewer victims. His argument was among the first mathematical models in evolutionary biology.
Müller, a correspondent of Darwin, published the model in 1878-1879 in Kosmos and Zoologischer Anzeiger; his residence between Blumenau and Desterro makes the exact location imprecise.
What it led to
- Theory of shared warning signals
- Studies of mimicry rings in Heliconius
- Quantitative analyses of frequency-dependent selection