In weed, or Vavilovian mimicry, the weed does not profit from encounters with man or his winnowing machinery; at best the weed is left, at worst it is destroyed.
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Wickler, W. (1968) Mimicry in Plants and Animals (Translated from the German) McGraw-Hill, New York.
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His field research included collecting almost a hundred species of butterflies from the families Ithomiinae and Heliconiinae, as well as thousands of other insects specimens.
Vavilovian mimicry bears considerable similarity to Batesian mimicry (where a harmless organism mimics a harmful species) in that the weed does not share the properties that give the model its protection, and both the model and the dupe (in this case people) are negatively affected by it.
Mimicry | mimicry | Batesian mimicry | Vavilovian mimicry | Müllerian mimicry | Mimicry ring involving ''Graphium ridleyanus'', ''Acraea egina | An adult female ''H. coronatus'' on and mimicry |
This species is mimicked (Batesian mimicry) by the Kenyan forms of Regal Swallowtail (Papilio rex).
Examples of Batesian mimicry are the several species of butterflies that mimic the toxic Heliconid butterflies.