Mimicry in motion and morphology: do information limitation, trade-offs or compensation relax selection for mimetic accuracy?

Many animals mimic dangerous or undesirable prey as a defence from predators. We would expect predators to reliably and exclusively avoid animals that closely resemble dangerous prey, yet imperfect mimics are common. There have been many hypotheses suggested to explain imperfect mimicry, but comparative tests across multiple mimicry systems are needed to determine which are applicable, and which—if any—represent general principles of imperfect mimicry. We tested four hypotheses on Australian ant mimics and found support for only one of them: the information limitation hypothesis. A predator with incomplete information will be unable to discriminate some poor mimics from their models. We also show that since predators must make decisions while they are learning, they are likely to never sample broadly enough to gain and utilise the full information needed to discriminate poor mimics from their models. We found no evidence that one accurate mimetic trait can compensate for another, or that rapid movement reduces selection pressure for good mimicry. Based on our results, we argue that information limitation is likely to be a general principle behind imperfect mimicry of any complex traits, while interactions between components of mimicry may apply to some mimicry systems but not others.

Methods
This data set is a zip file containing both data and code (R scripts). Data include videos of walking arthropods, from which trajectories are extracted, and outlines derived from still photographs, which are used to analyse body shape. The R scripts are used to process and analyse the data. The data set contains README.md and README.txt files that describe the structure of the data set in more detail.

Usage Notes
The data set contains README.md and README.txt files that describe the data set.

众多动物模仿危险或不理想的猎物，以此作为防御捕食者的手段。我们预期捕食者将可靠且专一地避开与危险猎物高度相似的动物，然而不完美的模仿现象却屡见不鲜。针对不完美模仿现象，已有众多假设被提出，但需要在多个模仿系统间进行对比实验，以确定哪些假设具有适用性，以及哪些——如果有的话——代表不完美模仿的普遍原则。我们对澳大利亚蚂蚁模仿者进行了四个假设的测试，并仅发现其中之一——信息限制假设——得到了支持：信息不完整的捕食者将无法区分某些拙劣的模仿者与它们的模型。我们还表明，由于捕食者必须在学习过程中做出决策，它们很可能无法广泛采样以获取并利用区分拙劣模仿者与模型所需的全套信息。我们没有发现任何证据表明一个准确的模仿特征可以补偿另一个，或者快速移动可以降低优良模仿的选择压力。基于我们的研究结果，我们认为信息限制可能是任何复杂特征不完美模仿背后的普遍原则，而模仿组成部分之间的相互作用可能适用于某些模仿系统，但不适用于所有系统。

研究方法
本数据集是一个包含数据和代码（R脚本）的zip文件。数据包括行进节肢动物的影像，从中提取轨迹，以及来自静止照片的轮廓，用于分析身体形态。R脚本用于处理和分析数据。数据集包含描述数据集结构的详细信息的README.md和README.txt文件。

使用说明
数据集包含描述数据集的README.md和README.txt文件。