Leaf mimicry in the context of "Mimicry in plants"

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⭐ Core Definition: Leaf mimicry

Leaf mimicry is the evolved resemblance of an organism to a leaf, a form of mimicry. This may serve directly as camouflage, or it may function as Batesian mimicry if the leaf model is distasteful, for example if it has chemical defences. The mimicking organism can be a plant, such as the vine Boquila trifoliolata, or an animal. It is not known how the vine can sense different leaf shapes. Among animals, many leaf mimics are insects, especially butterflies, katydids, and phasmids. Others are vertebrates, including leaffishes and toads. The mimicry, both in insects and among vertebrates, can involve behaviour as well as coloration and body shape.

Fossil leaf-mimicking insects are known from the Jurassic of northeastern China, including both grigs and lacewings, and from a phasmid of the Eocene of Germany.

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Leaf mimicry in the context of Leaf-mimic katydid

There are many insects in the family Tettigoniidae (bush crickets or katydids) which are mimics of leaves. At a distance the katydid is an example of crypsis evading detection by blending into its background; up close the katydid mimics a leaf.

This type of camouflage occurs in several subfamilies, among others including:

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Leaf mimicry in the context of Camouflage in plants

In evolutionary biology, mimicry in plants is where a plant evolves to resemble another organism physically or chemically. Mimicry in plants has been studied far less than mimicry in animals. It may provide protection against herbivory, or may deceptively encourage mutualists, like pollinators, to provide a service without offering a reward in return.

Types of plant mimicry include Bakerian mimicry, where female flowers imitate males of the same species; Dodsonian mimicry, where a plant mimics a rewarding flower, luring pollinators by mimicking another species of flower, or fruit where feeders of the other species are attracted to a fake fruit to distribute seeds; Gilbertian, where a plant has structures like butterfly eggs, dissuading egg-laying; Vavilovian, where a weed is unintentionally selected to resemble a crop plant; Pouyannian, in which a flower imitates a female mate, deceiving a male pollinating insect into pseudocopulation; Batesian, where a harmless species deters predators by mimicking the characteristics of a harmful species; and leaf mimicry, where a plant is camouflaged by resembling a nearby plant to evade the attention of herbivores.

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