Animal mimicry: choosing when to be a cleaner-fish mimic.
Mimicry in vertebrates is usually a permanent state--mimics resemble and normally accompany their model throughout the life stages during which they act as mimics. Here we show that the bluestriped fangblenny fish (Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos), which aggressively attacks other coral-reef fish, can turn off the mimetic colours that disguise it as the benign bluestreak cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus, and assume a radically different appearance. This opportunistic facultative mimicry extends the fangblenny's scope by allowing it to blend into shoals of small reef fish as well as to remain inconspicuous at cleaning stations.
Côté
Isabelle M
IM
Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. i.cote@uea.ac.uk
Cheney
Karen L
KL
D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa; D049628:Body Size; D003116:Color; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology*; D007214:Indonesia; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors