# What's the opposite of aposematic mimicry?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-opposite-of-aposematic-mimicry/374120>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 25, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-opposite-of-aposematic-mimicry/374120 "2006-09-25T20:45:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-opposite-of-aposematic-mimicry/374120/1 "2006-09-25T20:45:33Z")

</div>

Aposematism is when an animal distinguishes itself, perhaps by bright colors or stripes or some noticeable visual cue, as a warning that it’s dangerous. Predators learn to avoid the dangers of the animal by recognizing it. Brightly colored coral snake – very dangerous, and very recognizeable.

So another animal evolves to take advantage of the coral snake’s badass reputation – I don’t remember the particular snake, but there’s a relatively harmless snake that LOOKS like the coral snake, and presumably is safer because it gets constantly mistaken for its dangerous cousin.

My recollection is that this is called _aposematic mimicry_.

Now, there must be an opposite side to this, where a predator pretends to be something harmless, helpless, and good-tasting to lure in a would-be attacker, only to turn the tables and gobble up the would-be gobbler.

1. Does that actually exist in nature?
2. What is it called?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-opposite-of-aposematic-mimicry/374120/2 "2006-09-25T21:04:27Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Bricker]

1. Does that actually exist in nature?  
[/quote]

Yes, it’s quite common.

> [@](#):
>
> 1. What is it called?

Aggressive mimicry, or Peckhamian mimicry.

This [Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry) describes various kinds of mimicry.

The kind of mimicry you describe in the OP, in which a harmless species resembles a dangerous one, is specifically called Batesian mimicry. Another common type, in which various dangerous species resemble one another, is known as Mullerian mimicry.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-opposite-of-aposematic-mimicry/374120/3 "2006-09-27T14:33:27Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Bricker]  
So another animal evolves to take advantage of the coral snake’s badass reputation – I don’t remember the particular snake, but there’s a relatively harmless snake that LOOKS like the coral snake, and presumably is safer because it gets constantly mistaken for its dangerous cousin.  
[/quote]  
That sounds like a [Sonora Mountain Kingsnake](http://images.google.com/images?q=sonora+kingsnake&hl=en).

> [@](#):
>
> Now, there must be an opposite side to this, where a predator pretends to be something harmless, helpless, and good-tasting to lure in a would-be attacker, only to turn the tables and gobble up the would-be gobbler.
> 
> 1. Does that actually exist in nature?
> 2. What is it called?

Off the top of my head, I recall fish ([Anglerfish](http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=anglerfish)) and even some turtles that exhibit these adaptions - they have “dangly bitz” that look edible to passing fish, and when the would-be-eater gets too close, they strike quickly and gulp them down.