page_title: Aggressive mimicry
section_title: Mimicry of cleaner fish
hierarchical_section_title: Aggressive mimicry / Classification / Mimicry of cleaner fish
caption_attribution_description: A Potato Cod (Epinephelus tukula) is cleaned by two Striped Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus). North Horn, Osprey Reef, Coral Sea
context_page_description: Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predators, parasites or parasitoids share similar signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host. Zoologists have repeatedly compared this strategy to a wolf in sheep's clothing. In its broadest sense, aggressive mimicry could include various types of exploitation, as when an orchid exploits a male insect by mimicking a sexually receptive female, but will here be restricted to forms of exploitation involving feeding. An alternative term Peckhamian mimicry has been suggested, but is seldom used. The metaphor of a wolf in sheep's clothing can be used as an analogy, but with the caveat that mimics are not intentionally deceiving their prey. For example, indigenous Australians who dress up as and imitate kangaroos when hunting would not be considered aggressive mimics, nor would a human angler, though they are undoubtedly practising self-decoration camouflage. Treated separately is molecular mimicry, which shares some similarity; for instance a virus may mimic the molecular properties of its host, allowing it access to its cells.
context_section_description: Mimicry of mutualistic species is seen in coral reef fish, where the models, certain cleaner fish, are greatly disadvantaged by the presence of the mimic. Cleaner fish are the allies of many other species, which allow them to eat their parasites and dead skin in a mutually beneficial cleaning symbiosis. Some allow the cleaner to venture inside their mouths and gill cavities to hunt these parasites. However, one species of cleaner, the bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), is the unknowing model of a mimetic species, the sabre-toothed blenny (Aspidontus taeniatus). This wrasse, shown in the image cleaning a grouper of the genus Epinephelus, resides in coral reefs in the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, and is recognised by other fishes who then allow it to clean them. Its imposter, a species of blenny, lives in the Indian Ocean and not only looks like it in terms of size and coloration, but even mimics the cleaner's 'dance'. Having fooled its prey into letting its guard down, it then bites it, tearing off scales or a piece of fin before fleeing the scene. Fish grazed upon in this fashion soon learn to distinguish mimic from model, but because the similarity is close between the two they become much more cautious of the model as well, such that both are affected. Due to victims' ability to discriminate between foe and helper, the blennies have evolved close similarity, right down to the regional level.
  Another aggressive mimic of the cleaner wrasse, the bluestriped fangblenny, has evolved an opioid-containing venom which dulls pain and lowers blood pressure, confusing the bitten host and giving the cheating mimic time to escape.
caption: Two bluestreak cleaner wrasse cleaning a potato grouper, Epinephelus tukula
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