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If butterflies could commit crimes you wouldn’t want to line them up in an identity parade. Many species have managed to borrow the appearance of their more dangerous distant relatives: they are wolves in a sheep’s clothing. And it isn’t just butterflies – very many creatures, insects especially, but also frogs, snakes and fishes, sometimes imitate leaves, flowers, stones, bird droppings and other insects, frogs, snakes and fishes.
One creature copying another raises the question of how creatures are defined in the first place: that is, as species. And the question of species is the question of Evolution. Darwin’s book was called The Origin of Species. Current work on mimicry is bringing us closer than ever to learning how species form.
The Theory of Evolution and the scientific study of life itself are now under threat from resurgent fundamentalist religions of all stripes. Much of the public debate about Evolution and Creationism is sterile and unproductive. The great attraction of mimicry is its aesthetic appeal, its beguiling tricksiness, its demonstrable visual evidence. The Mystery of Mimicry will raise the debate to a new level. Two thousand and nine is the big Darwin anniversary and The Mystery of Mimicry will make a strong case for the capacity of the biological thinking that derives from Darwin to give a true account of the natural world about us.
It is not only animals that use camouflage and mimicry in their life strategy. Human beings do too, especially in warfare. Mimicry is a natural meeting ground of nature, art and the technology of war. In these pages, figures such as Picasso and the novelist Vladimir Nabokov will join a fascinating cast of natural historians, with Darwin himself at the helm. Turf wars between biologists and artists for the right to protect the fighting forces by camouflage broke out during both world wars and are a major thread in the book’s narrative.
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