Coevolutionary arms races in Batesian mimicry? A test of the chase-away hypothesis

Reciprocal selection on harmless Batesian mimics and their defended models has long been hypothesized to spawn coevolutionary arms races. Mimics are thought continuously to experience selection to resemble their models better. Models are thought continuously to experience ‘chase-away’ selection for phenotypes that let them escape from these ‘parasitic’ mimics, especially when the cost of having mimics is high. Although abundant evidence suggests...