Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 10, Issue 1 – June 2005

Frank Schneidewind: An frogfish (Antennarius sp.) as a mimic of sea urchins: a new form of mimicry in the family Antennariidae, pp. 23-28

Abstract

Mimicry in frogfishes (Antennariidae) and  defensive associations between fishes and sea urchins, and a black, “hairy” frogfish (Antennarius sp.) from the Philippines are described. This  mimic frogfish lives in the middle of a colony of sea urchins (Astropyga radiata). Its external appearance and its behaviour are interpreted as a form of aggressive and protective mimicry, as well as camouflage, previously unknown in frogfishes.