The wise Red Queen in 'Through the looking glass'

The wise Red Queen in (Alice), Through the looking glass

"
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place"


 The hypothesis was named after the famous or infamous "Red queen" because put simply it states that one must keep running (i.e., evolving) to keep existing or face extinction. 

 

  Brood parasites

 
Trickery is not just a characteristic, but a way of life when it comes to this parasitic bird. A European cuckoo, that tricks a starling into raising its young, is a master trickster! A starling foster parent,  hypnotized into feeding a chick twice its size, like its own, sounds like something out of science fiction. 

The Alcon blue butterfly pupa uses chemical mimicry to manipulate the hardworking colony of red ants to feed it, more so than the ants' own larvae. 

 


Tartally A, Koschuh A, Varga Z 2014 Wikipedia

Co-evolutionary arm's race

While the butterfly have wiped out some of their host species, some hosts are learning to recognise and change the chemical cues given out by their larvae, in response to parasitism. Likewise, the starlings are changing their egg patterns to avoid the morphological egg mimicry by cuckoos.

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