SIMULATION OF COEVOLUTION IN BATESIAN MIMICRY

Coevolution may be defined as an evolutionary change in a trait of one species in response to a change in a trait of a second species, followed by an evolutionary response by the second species to the changes in the first. Yet, more complex evolutionary relationships are known to occur, such as Batesian mimicry, where three or more separate species interact along their evolutionary history. Do these complex interactions involve coevolution? In order to explore possible answers to this question, we built an agent based simulation model in which we monitored the evolution of the characteristics of individuals in a Batesian mimicry system consisting of predators, noxious prey or toxic models, non-noxious prey mimicking the toxic model, and non-mimic non-noxious prey or alternate prey. The evolutionary game consisted in Predators evolving genetic mechanisms for avoiding preying on Toxic Models, in Toxic Models evolving anti-predator toxins and signals for Predators, and in Mimics evolving mimic anti-predator signals, taking as a modeling reference the case of the evolution of harmless look-alikes of venomous coral snakes is taken as a reference. Results showed that a likely evolutionary scenario for Batesian mimicry is a mutual selective pressure between Predators and Toxic Models (i.e. Predators and Model