How Much Mimic Load Can a Warning Signal Support?

Mimicry rings are local communities structured around established warning signals, shaped by predator learning and frequency-dependent selection. This paper studies a narrower question about mimic frequencies: conditional on several established model signals coexisting in a common predation environment, how much mimic load can each support? Potential mimics differ in intrinsic unprofitability and may remain distinct or express an established signal at a common cost. We show that sufficiently weakly defended potential mimics express established signals, whereas more strongly defended classes remain distinct. Signals receiving mimics are diluted until predators infer the same unprofitability from each. The formal contribution is to characterize the balance between the abundance and unprofitability of established model providers and the mimic load they can support, rather than merely the intuitive direction of this relationship. Under the common-composition assumption, each occupied signal receives the same mix of adopting mimics; relative mimic loads therefore reflect the dilution each provider can absorb. The framework provides a static frequency-dependent benchmark for mimicry-ring composition.