I’ve always had a notion that there’s some kind of gene theft with mimicry. The combinatorics of just rattling genes into existence that build a mock termite l

I’ve always had a notion that there’s some kind of gene theft with mimicry. The combinatorics of just rattling genes into existence that build a mock termite larva seem infeasible in the timescale involved. What does the math look like? How many possible gene configurations are there that will build a mock termite on the back of a beetle? What’s the shortest random walk to get there from a beetle with no termite on its back and how does that compare with the total number of these beetles ever created in nature? A single gene might have 4^300 configurations. Are there five genes or fifty or five hundred involved? How many of these beetles have ever been built? 10^20?