Animals That Imitate Other Animals

Animals don't just put on costumes to scamper abroad from predators. With the right disguise, these impostors plow the tables on an unwitting victim.

While most mimicry in the animal kingdom is designed to obscure or deter other animals, some predators take evolved to use mimicry to become food, appearing to be food themselves, or something else equally attractive to their casualty. This is called aggressive mimicry, and below are 10 fine examples of deadly impostors.

Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys spp.)

With a set of jaws every bit large as those of the alligator snapping turtle, y'all'd be justified to wonder why the alligator snapping turtle would need any class of camouflage. Despite their powerful bite, these freshwater turtles disguise themselves amid the dead wood and mud at the bottom of rivers and lakes, fluctuant a small growth on their tongue inside its open oral cavity. This growth mimics the move and appearance of a worm, with the turtle interim like a truthful fisherman, lying in wait until a fish takes the bait and becomes dinner.

False Cleanerfish (Aspidontus taeniatus)

'True' cleanerfish are a species of wrasse that ready 'cleaning stations' for larger fish, such as groupers. The cleanerfish swims between the mouths and gills of the larger fish, picking off parasites, dead tissue, and other unwanted hitchhikers. The cleanerfish is fed, and the big fish is cleaned. As with any skilful human relationship, there is always something that exists to exploit it. The false cleanerfish is a blenny that mimics the coloration and signaling of the true cleaner wrasses, waiting for a large fish to come along expecting to be cleaned. Instead of cleaning the fish, these blennies volition instead accept bites out of the fish they are 'serving'. Ouch.

Antmimicking Spider (Myrmarachne spp.)

The antmimicking spiders of the genus Myrmarachne are part of a group known as jumping spiders. These spiders specialize in feeding on specific species of ants, with some species fifty-fifty going every bit far equally to just mimic ants of specific age groups, with dissimilar colors for different ant maturities. Waving a pair of legs in the air similar antennae, they go unnoticed as they ambush solitary ants and drag them away to be eaten. Calculation insult to injury, in males the mouthparts are enlarged and elongated to resemble the head of an ant. Like something out of a horror movie, the false head splits open to reveal a pair of needle-similar fangs, used to pierce prey and deter rival spiders.

Spotted Predatory Katydid (Chlorobalius leucoviridis)

It's hard to tell merely what this colorful katydid is trying to mimic by looks alone, and for practiced reason – the spotted predatory katydid is on this list considering of its ability to mimic the sounds of its casualty. These insects mimic the mating calls of female cicadas, and are able to mimic non merely multiple species, but also species that they accept never heard before. This makes the katydid a remarkably versatile predator of Australian cicadas.

Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus coronatus)

The orchid mantis presents itself as the flower of an orchid, with its broad limbs and brilliant coloration looking like the petals. Orchid mantises act equally a hyperstimulus; they are more than appealing to their prey than the real orchid flowers, as their coloration is more than vivid than the petals they are copying. In other words, to their prey look similar better flowers than the real flowers themselves. Other mantis species go in the reverse direction, disguising themselves equally expressionless leaves to avert suspicion and predation.

Light-green-banded Broodsac (Leucochloridium paradoxum)

This incredible flatworm uses a lure not to get prey, just to get eaten. The broodsac gets its name from the way information technology creates a sac of larvae. Each 'worm' is in fact a sac of many hundreds of minor larval flatworms. Later a snail eats it, the sac makes its way to the eyestalks of the snail, causing both physical and behavioral changes in its host. The sac pulsates with bright carmine, yellowish, and greenish, resembling a caterpillar. What'south more, the snail has a reduced dislike of sunlight, making them more likely to appear in the sunlight and concenter birds. Once the snail is eaten by a bird, the broodsac develops into adults, reproduces, and so lays eggs in the bird's debris, gear up for some other snail to come along and swallow them.

Death's-caput Hawkmoth (Acherontia spp.)

These moths became iconic in the minds of the public after their appearance in Silence of the Lambs, where they were placed in the mouths of a serial killer'due south victims. Identifiable past the skull-like markings near their head, death'southward-heads include three species of moths plant in Europe and Asia. These insects do not use vision-based mimicry; instead, they mimic the smell of bees, allowing them to become close to hives without being stung. At that place, they ignore the bees, choosing instead to feed on the sugary honey stored inside.

Anglerfish (order Lophiiformes)

Nosotros couldn't do a listing of ambitious mimics without including the anglerfish. This group of fish is characterized past the presence of a fleshy growth on the front end of their heads. These growths act as angling lures – like to the alligator snapping turtle – and are used to concenter casualty towards their open mouths. Dissimilar the snapping turtle, some anglerfish take this lure to the next level, with the lures varying in shape from globular to looking like fleshy worms. Some lures even contain bioluminescent chemicals for use in deeper h2o where sunlight cannot penetrate.

Spider-tailed Horned Viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides)

This Iranian snake'south tail is shaped into a bulbous structure with thin 'legs' jutting out that look merely enough like a spider to lure the horned viper'southward chosen casualty: birds. While other snakes also use their tails as lures, none have lures equally complex as that of this viper. The lure is moved across a rocky surface, while the snake lies in wait, the rest of its body perfectly camouflaged. When a bird – typically a warbler – swoops downward to capture the spider, the ophidian attacks.

Femme Fatale Firefly (subfamily Photurinae)

While they may not await similar much of a femme fatale to the states, these beetles certainly play the part for unsuspecting fireflies. Lighting upwardly their abdomens, these beetles mimic the mating signals of other female firefly species, interim as just another single beetle looking for dearest. When a male firefly responds to these calls, they travel over to the light in hopes of mating. Unfortunately for the suitor, the femme fatale firefly needs to fill its empty tummy.