This week we shall discover a new type of mimicry: Mullerian mimicry. Mullerian mimicry owes its name to the German naturalist franz Muller .Almost twenty years after Btes brought us Batesian mimicry, Muller offered up a new variation of mimicry in 1878 through his study of insects. Mullerian mimicry describes the event of two or more unpalatable, unrelated species displaying similar warning coulours and patterns. The degree of unpalatability can vary between them i.e. one may be very toxic whilst the other mildly but in order for it to be Mullerian and not Batesian both parties must be unpalatable.

Mulerian mimicry rings often contain a number of different species exhibiting hte same warningcolours. This increases the chance that a predator may try to predate on one of these individuals. After which it should refrain form attacking anything else displaying such a colour scheme.

Mullerian mimicry is not limited to insects. Below are forgs of the genus Dendrobates, collected by Schute et al. (2001). Frogs A-C are of the species Dendrobates imitator, below which are frogs of different species, displaying the sympatic relationship in variation to geographical location:
© The Royal Society


References:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/396909/Mullerian-mimicry

http://inscets.about.com/od/Insect  Defences/f/What-Is-Mullerian-Mimicry.htm

Schulte, R, Summers, K, Symula R 2001, 'Molecular phylogenetic evidence for a mimetic radiation in Peruvianpoison frogs supports a Mullerian mimicry hypothesis', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Vol. 268, pp. 2415-2421, fig. 1.