Mimicry in Plants

 Plant adaptations can be remarkably complex. Certain species of orchids,

 for instance, imitate female bees, other plants look and smell like dead

 animals, and still others have the appearance of stones. These strange

 adaptations to life represent just a few of the sophisticated means by

 which plants enhance their chances of survival. Mimicry in plants or

 animals is a three part system. There is a model: the animal, plant or

 substrate being initiated. There is a mimic: the organism that imitates the

 model. And  there is a  signal  receiver  or dupe:  the animal that cannot

 effectively distinguish  between  the  model  and  the  mimic.  Mimetic 

 traits  may  include  morphological structures, color patterns, behaviors

 or other attributes of the mimic that promote its resemblance to  a model.

 That model may be  either an unrelated species  or  an inanimate object,

 such  as  the background against which an organism spends most of its time.

 Mimicry is not an active strategy on the part of an individual plant;

 flowers do not deliberately trick or deceive animals into visiting them.

 Mimicry arises  as the result of  evolution through  natural selection and

 the  occurrence  of random  genetic  mutations  that  lead  over  many 

 generations  to  the  appearance  of  favorable characteristics. If such

 traits help to camouflage a plant, for example, the plant is likely to have

 a survival  advantage  over other plants that are less well camouflaged.

 The plant will  leave more descendants, thereby passing the advantage to

 the next generation. For natural selection to favor the evolution of

 mimicry, the mimicry must derive a reproductive advantage from modeling

 itself after another organism or object: its fitness, measured as the

 number of offspring produced that survive into the next generation, must be

increased as the result of deception.

植物擬態

 植物的適應性極為復雜。  某種蘭花模仿雌蜂，還有些植物看上去或嗅起來象 死去的動物，更有些植物具有石頭的外表。

 這些稀奇古怪的適應性不過是植物的眾多求生 手段中的一小部分罷了。  動植物的擬態包括三方面的內容：一是被模仿者，動物，植物或

 是生態基層，二是模仿者，即那些去模擬其它東西的生物，三是上當受騙者，即不能分辨模 仿者與被模仿者的動物。

 被模仿特征包括形態結構，色彩花紋，動作習性或其它模仿者實 現它與被模仿者相似的特點。  被模仿者可以是其它種類的生物或非生命物，如棲居地的環 境。

 擬態并非某個植物主動的策略。  花朵并非故意誘騙動物來訪。  擬態是無數代自然選 擇和遺傳變異的進化而獲得的有利特征的結果。

 比如，有些特征有利于偽裝，那么具有這 些特征的植物就比不具有的易于生存。  這種植物就會有更多的后代，并把這些特征代代相 傳。

 要讓自然選擇惠顧模仿者的進化，模仿者必須在模仿其它生物或物體中得到繁殖優勢： 它的適應能力，以存活至下一代的幼獸的數目來衡量，必定因為欺騙而加強了。

整理

2012.10.4