The resemblance between unpalatable butterfly species helps:
Resemblance among unpalatable butterfly species accelerates predator education because each encounter reinforces the same warning signal. A bird that samples one defended species and experiences bitterness, nausea, or another cost can generalize avoidance to other species bearing the shared pattern. Consequently, fewer individuals of each species need to be attacked before the local predator population learns, reducing the per-species cost of establishing warning. This is the central advantage of Müllerian mimicry. The effect is more precise than simply “confusing” predators: successful warnin
Ref: Evolutionary Analysis, Herron & Freeman, 5th Ed., Ch. 10
