Frequency-dependent selection is an evolutionary process by which the fitness of a phenotype or genotype depends on the phenotype or genotype composition of a given population.
Dactylorhiza sambucina, an orchid. Same species, two different colours - hence "Adam" and "Eve" in swedish.
Anvil stone, where a thrush has broken open shells of polymorphic Cepaea snails; its selection of morphs may be frequency-dependent.
Harmless scarlet kingsnake mimics the coral snake, but its pattern varies less where the coral snake is rare.
Venomous coral snake's warning coloration can benefit harmless mimics, depending on their relative frequency.
Batesian mimicry
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Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry wherein a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species in order to benefit from these signals' tendency to deter their mutual
Frequency-dependent selection
…involved are aposematic and share the benefit of a common, honest signal to potential predators. Another, rather complicated example occurs in the Batesian mimicry complex between a harmless mimic, the scarlet kingsnake (Lampropeltis elapsoides), and the model, the eastern coral snake (Micrurus fulvius), in locations…
Plate from Bates 1861, illustrating Batesian mimicry between Dismorphia species (top row and third row) and various Ithomiini (Nymphalidae) (second and bottom rows). A non-Batesian species, Pseudopieris nehemia, is in the centre.
Henry Walter Bates described the form of mimicry that bears his name in 1861.
The yellow-banded poison dart frog (Dendrobates leucomelas) has conspicuous aposematic coloration.
The hoverfly Spilomyia longicornis is an imperfect Batesian mimic of wasps, lacking their long antennae and wasp waist.