Mimetismo entre serpentes e invertebrados: convergência ou coincidência? Uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Mimicry is a topic widely studied since the last century, firstly mentioned by the naturalists Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace, the studies were mainly about insects. Currently, mimicry research comprises both vertebrate and invertebrate. But there are few that mention a possible mimicry complex between snakes and invertebrates. This work aims to realize a bibliography review about possible mimicry complexes that comprises both snakes and invertebrates, comment about these researches and correlate with distribution data. The surveys were made using digital magazines and libraries, as well as databases for geographic distribution references. Nine publications were found that suggest possible evidence for a mimicry complex between species of invertebrates with snakes. However, there are not, at the present moment, works that indicate datation or origin of the groups here presented so that we can infer who is the mimic and who is the model. Therefore, the conclusions were that more research is necessary, mainly focused to datation analysis.