Mimicry 

Francis Gilbert, Tom Reader and Chris Taylor

We are actively involved in research on mimicry, and in particular the evolution and maintenance of imperfect mimics. Many of the world's fauna and flora are bound up in mimicry complexes, and these complexes contain both accurate mimics and other mimics of varying degrees of inaccuracy. Until about ten years ago, mimicry theory had only really considered the evolution of perfect mimicry. It is easy to understand the selection pressure for better mimicry, but what impedes its evolution?

This work is partly done in collaboration with Dr Tom Sherratt (Carleton University, Canada).