Mimicry

Do you know some animals are mimics? Moths, butterflies and caterpillars use mimicry for protection from their predators. They fool them by pretending to be a poisonous or a dangerous creature. The Monarch Butterfly is a poisonous butterfly. Some butterflies pretend to be the Monarch. The Viceroy Butterfly is one of those pretenders who looks like a Monarch. From a bird's eye view, the Viceroy looks just like the poisonous Monarch. The bird remembers how bad the last one tasted and doesn't eat it. It remembers when one of its pals ate a Monarch and died. Mimicry is important to many butterflies because they can't sting, bite or defend themselves in other ways.