what is mullerian mimicry

Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimic each others honest warning signals, to their mutual benefit. The phenomenon relies on aposematism, or warning signals, where dangerous organisms with these honest signals are avoided by predators, which quickly learn after a bad experience not to pursue the same unprofitable prey again. Unlike Batesian mimicry, where one organism is not noxious, Müllerian mimicry involves two or more unrelated noxious or dangerous organisms that exhibit closely similar warning systems. According to the widely accepted theory advanced in 1878 by the German naturalist Fritz Müller, this resemblance, although differing from Batesian mimicry, should be considered mimicry nonetheless, because a predator that has learned to avoid an organism with a given warning system will avoid all similar organisms, thus making the resemblance a protective mechanism.