--- title: Defences: poison, warning colours and mimics — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Defences: poison, warning colours and mimics», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A poisonous animal does not bite you; it harms whoever eats it or touches it, so it is best for it if nobody tries in the fir --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Defences: poison, warning colours and… # Defences: poison, warning colours and mimics Lesson 247 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/0/) — A poisonous animal does not bite you; it harms whoever eats it or touches it, so it is best for it if nobody tries in the first place. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/1/) — That is why many poisonous animals are dressed in red, yellow, orange or black, nature's danger signs, like the yellow and black tape round a hole in the road. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/3/) — Some harmless animals cheat: a hoverfly on your ice cream wears wasp stripes but cannot sting at all; copying a dangerous animal like this is called mimicry. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/4/) — Many poisonous animals do not make their poison themselves: they get it from what they eat. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/5/) — Poison dart frogs have poison in their skin and bright colours that warn predators; in the wild they get the poison from ants and mites they eat, so zoo frogs fed on crickets are not poisonous. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/6/) — The golden poison frog of Colombia carries enough poison to kill about ten people, and some peoples there wiped blowgun darts on its back for hunting, without hurting the frog, which is how the frogs got their name. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/7/) — Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, keep its poison in their bodies, and birds that eat a monarch get sick and learn to avoid orange and black butterflies; the viceroy looks very similar and also tastes bad, so they share the warning. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/8/) — Pufferfish, called fugu in Japan, have a very strong poison in their liver and other parts, made by bacteria in their food; only chefs with a special licence may prepare fugu, and farm-raised pufferfish can be poison-free. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/9/) — Ladybirds bleed a bitter, smelly yellow liquid from their knees when attacked, called reflex bleeding, and their red and black colours warn birds; their spots show the kind of ladybird, not its age. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/10/) — Cane toads have poison glands behind their heads and can make dogs very sick; they were brought to Australia in 1935 to eat beetles in sugar cane fields, spread, poisoned native animals, and now number in the hundreds of millions, as was reported. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/11/) — The hoverfly is harmless but has wasp-like yellow and black stripes, which is mimicry; hoverflies can hover still in the air and have two wings, while wasps have four. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/12/) — You do not get warts from touching a toad, because warts come from a human virus, but toads have bumpy glands with bad-tasting stuff, so wash your hands after holding one. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/13/) — Toads walk more than they hop and have drier, bumpier skin than frogs. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/247-defences-poison-warning-colours-and-mimics/16/) — Red, yellow, orange and black often mean danger in nature, predators learn quickly or are born wary of them, and people copy nature with yellow and black warning signs. - ← previous: [Defences: venom in snakes, jellyfish, scorpions and the platypus](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/246-defences-venom-in-snakes-jellyfish-scorpions-and-the-platypus/) - next →: [Defences: skunks, porcupines, hedgehogs and armour](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/248-defences-skunks-porcupines-hedgehogs-and-armour/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)