>>"On the same token, milk snakes that end up looking like coral snakes were picked out by the hand of evolution, rather than as a result of wanting to look like a coral snake or trying to mimic another species because it "understands" that this was a good thing to do."

>>

>>The hand of evolution? Please explain.



Maybe not the best choice of words. Don't take it too literally. I think it was just another way of saying "natural seletion".



>>I think nature "designed" milk/king snakes as mimics to Coral's or the other the way around, as a "visual defense" to other animals, i.e.,"bright" colors to warn other animals to leave it alone.



Maybe I'm taking YOUR words too literally here, but unless you're working with some sort of Wiccan world view, using "nature" and "design" in the same sentence seems to suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution.



Unless there's some component of evolution that no one has been able to explain of demonstrate in the last 150 years then milk/king snakes would most likely have evolved red/yellow/black banding in one of a couple of ways that I can think of:

1) A random mutation leading to this color pattern and those with that pattern were more successful than their competetors as a result:

a) because predators mistook them for corals (the mimicry theory) or

b) because predators were simply startled or confused by the bright colors

2) A gene/genes for this pattern evolved for what ever reason in the ancient past but were later surpressed or lost in most lines, but survived in some milk/king snakes as well as corals.



At frist glance 1) would seem much more likely because because of the banding order, but considering that there are corals with the same colors in different orders it could simply be that there is one gene or set of genes for the colors and another set for the order.



Either way, it's very unlikely that learning or any decision whatsoever on the part of the snake had any effect on it's evolution (although learning by its predators might). When most people use the word "mimicry" in this context the are using it rather loosely. They just mean that something works because it happens to look or act like something else, not that it is actually TRYING to look or act like something else.

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