| 🌵 Author(s) | Fred Kattermann |
| 🌵 Basionym | Pyrrhocactus simulans (1961) |
| 🌵 Basionym author(s) | Friedrich Ritter | 🌵 Basionym published in | Succulenta (Netherlands) 1961: 35 (1961) |
Latin sÄmÅlans ‘imitating’. For the similarity to Copiapoa coquimbana. Ritter: “What is particularly striking is that this species […] is strikingly similar to Copiapoa coquimbana (Karw.) Br. and Rose. It occurs only locally here and there among these Copiapoa growing in large numbers. This can hardly be a mere coincidence and should in my opinion be regarded more as mimicry. Presumably the cause lies in the strong attraction of Pyrrhocacti for larvae of a species of beetle, which feeds on these succulent plants, hollows them out from the inside and often destroys them completely. These larvae are found much less in the plants of Copiapoa species, so that it is possible that Pyrrhocactus simulans Ritter is not visited by the beetles, which look for good breeding grounds for the eggs and deposit these eggs in the Pyrrhocactus sp. nova FR 252c, which does not resemble a Copiapoa. Pyrrhocactus simulans Ritter in this way manages to pass such an attack on another related species.”
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Mar 04). Eriosyce simulans. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/eriosyce-simulans