page_title: Ambush predator
section_title: Aggressive mimicry
hierarchical_section_title: Ambush predator / Bringing the prey within range / Aggressive mimicry
caption_attribution_description: Hymenopus coronatus English: orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) Français&#160;: Mante orchidée (Hymenopus coronatus) Deutsch: Orchideenmantis (Hymenopus coronatus) 日本語: ハナカマキリ（花螳螂）／ランカマキリ（蘭蟷螂） Nederlands: Orchidee-bidsprinkhaan
context_page_description: Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals that capture or trap prey by stealth or by strategy, rather than by speed or by strength. Ambush predators sit and wait for prey, often from a concealed position, and then launch a rapid surprise attack.
  The ambush may be set by hiding in a burrow, by camouflage, by aggressive mimicry, or by the use of a trap. The predator then uses a combination of senses to assess the prey and to time the strike. Nocturnal ambush predators such as cats and snakes have vertical slit pupils, helping them to judge the distance to prey in dim light. Different ambush predators use a variety of means to capture their prey, from the long sticky tongues of chameleons to the expanding mouths of frogfishes.
  Ambush predation is widely distributed in the animal kingdom, spanning some members of numerous groups such as the starfish, cephalopods, crustaceans, spiders, insects such as mantises, and vertebrates such as many snakes and fishes.
context_section_description: Many ambush predators actively attract their prey towards them before ambushing them. This strategy is called aggressive mimicry, using the false promise of nourishment to lure prey. The alligator snapping turtle is a well-camouflaged ambush predator. Its tongue bears a conspicuous pink extension that resembles a worm and can be wriggled around; fish that try to eat the "worm" are themselves eaten by the turtle. Similarly, some reptiles such as Elaphe rat snakes employ caudal luring (tail luring) to entice small vertebrates into striking range.
  The zone-tailed hawk, which resembles the turkey vulture, flies among flocks of turkey vultures, then suddenly breaks from the formation and ambushes one of them as its prey. There is however some controversy about whether this is a true case of wolf in sheep's clothing mimicry.
  Flower mantises are aggressive mimics, resembling flowers convincingly enough to attract prey that come to collect pollen and nectar. The orchid mantis actually attracts its prey, pollinator insects, more effectively than flowers do. Crab spiders, similarly, are coloured like the flowers they habitually rest on, but again, they can lure their prey even away from flowers.
caption: The orchid mantis, Hymenopus coronatus, mimics a rainforest orchid of southeast Asia to lure its prey, pollinator insects.
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