托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating concept in biology known as 'mimicry.' Mimicry occurs when one species evolves to resemble another species, often to gain a survival advantage. There are two main types. First, there's Batesian mimicry, where a harmless species imitates a dangerous or poisonous one to fool predators. For example, the scarlet king snake is non-venomous, but it has bright red, yellow, and black bands very similar to the deadly coral snake. Predators avoid the king snake because they mistake it for the coral snake. Second, there's Müllerian mimicry, where two or more harmful species evolve to look alike. This mutual resemblance helps predators learn to avoid them more quickly. For instance, several species of poisonous butterflies, like the monarch and the viceroy, share similar orange and black wing patterns. Since both are distasteful to birds, a bird that eats one and gets sick will avoid all similarly patterned butterflies, benefiting both species.