/bayt"see euhn/ , Ecol.
the protective resemblance in appearance of a palatable or harmless species, as the viceroy butterfly, to an unpalatable or dangerous species, as the monarch butterfly, that is usually avoided by predators. Cf. Müllerian mimicry .
[ after Henry Walter Bates (1825-92), English naturalist, who described such mimicry in 1861; see -IAN ]