Subject: Re: Bumblebee Mimic

From: Patrick Roper <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 1995 18:44:29 +0100

>On 6/13 on the north slope of Frazier Mountain in Ventura County,
>California I was observing Spring Azures (Echo Blues) [Celastrina ladon]
>and (Western) Brown Elfins [Callophrys augustinus] nectaring on a Golden
>Current shrub along with many other insects including several large
>bumblebees (Bombus sp.) when I saw what was later identified as a Bumble
>Bee Moth (Hemaris diffinis).
>Does anyone know the reason for this mimicry?  This sphinx/hummingbird
>moth certainly is maneuverable enough to escape most predators - so it
>seems hard to believe that it uses the bumble bee pattern for protection.
>Anyone out there studying this beast?

In the "Hawkmoths of the Western Palaearctic" by A.R. Pittaway (1993),
Colchester, UK the author says that bee-hawks are among the species that
mimic poisonous species (Batesian mimicry) to gain protection: "For example,
adult Hemaris species mimic bumblebees (Bombus spp.).  The latter, with
their painful sting, are studiously avoided by most avian predators.  In
addition, the adults of H. fuciformis are also distasteful, thus exhibiting
a degree of Mullerian mimicry, where several equally poisonous species
resemble one another for added protection.  In this case, predators learn to
avoid the warning characteristics - the toll taken before they do so being
distributed among co-mimics."

Patrick Roper
Butterfly Conservation
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South View, Sedlescombe, Battle, East Sussex TN33 0PE, UK
Telephone:  (01424) 870208; Fax: (01424) 870208
Email: [email-masked]
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