摘要
Dear editor, Mimetic protection is most effective when mimics are relatively rare (Pfennig et al.,2001). In polymorphic damselfly species, male-colored female morphs may avoid costly male mating attempts because they are not immediately recognized as a suitable mating partner (van Gossum et al.,2008). We investigated morphological resemblance of male-colored females to males across six populations of the polymorphic blue-tailed damselfly lschmira elegans (Vander Linden). We found that male-colored females resembled males more closely with an increasing ratio of male-colored females to other female morphs. Our results suggest that the degree of mimetic fidelity is frequencydependent.
