Chapter 9 Structure and Semiosis in Biological Mimicry Timo Maran Summary. Biological mimicry can be described as a structure consisting of two senders (a mimic and a model), a receiver, and their communicative interactions. The distinguishing of three par- ticipants in mimicry brings along the possibility to explain mimicry from different perspectives as a situation focused on signal- receiver, mimic, model, or human observer. This has been the foundation for many definitions and classifications of mimicry as well as for some semiotic interpretations. The present chapter introduces some possibilities for defining and classifying mimicry in order to map the dynamical relations between the structure and semiosis in biological mimicry. From a semiotic point of view, the most common property of mimicry seems to be the receiver’s inclination to make a mistake in recognition. This allows describing mimicry as incorporating a specific type of semiotic entity — ambivalent sign, — which is understood as an oscil- lation between one and several signs depending on the actual course of interpretation. Proceeding from Jakob von Uexküll’s The- ory of Meaning, mimicry as any other relation between species is umwelt-dependent i.e., it is conditioned by meanings and func- tions present for an animal. Therefore also mimic and model, as entities that the receiver fails to differentiate, are first entities of meaning in one’s umwelt and are not necessarily representatives of some biological species. The Uexküllian approach allows us to ana- lyze various examples of abstract and semiabstract resemblances in nature. Based on some examples, the biological notion of “abstract mimicry” is reinterpreted here as a situation where the object of imitation is an abstract feature with a universal meaning for many different animal receivers. 167