Since all forms of mimicry are based on perceptual deception, the sensory ecology of the intended receiver is of paramount importance to test the necessary precondition for mimicry to occur, that is, model‐mimic misidentification, and to gain insight in the origin and evolutionary trajectory of the signals. Here we test the potential for aggressive mimicry by a group of coral reef fishes, the color polymorphic Hypoplectrus hamlets, from the point of view of their most common prey, small epibenthic gobies and mysid shrimp. We build visual models based on the visual pigments and spatial resolution of the prey, the underwater light spectrum and color reflectances of putative models and their hamlet mimics. Our results are consistent with one mimic‐model relationship between the butter hamlet H. unicolor and its model the butterflyfish Chaetodon capistratus but do not support a second proposed mimic‐model pair between the black hamlet H. nigricans and the dusky damselfish Stegastes adustus. We discuss our results in the context of color morphs divergence in the Hypoplectrus species radiation and suggest that aggressive mimicry in H. unicolor might have originated in the context of protective (Batesian) mimicry by the hamlet from its fish predators rather than aggressive mimicry driven by its prey.

中文翻译：

---

珊瑚礁鱼类的攻击性模仿：猎物的观点

由于所有形式的模仿都是基于感知欺骗的，因此预期接收者的感觉生态学对于测试模仿发生的必要前提（即模型模仿错误识别）以及了解起源和进化轨迹至关重要。的信号。在这里，我们从其最常见的猎物，小型表皮虾虎鱼和my虾上，测试了一组珊瑚礁鱼类（颜色多态的Hypoplectrus小村庄）进行模仿的可能性。我们基于视觉色素和猎物的空间分辨率，水下光谱和推定模型及其小村庄模拟物的颜色反射率构建视觉模型。我们的结果与黄油小村庄之间的一种模拟模型关系一致H. unicolor及其模型为蝴蝶鱼Chaetodon capistratus，但不支持在黑色小村庄H. nigricans和昏暗的雀鲷Stegastes adustus之间提议的第二对模拟模型。我们在Hypoplectrus物种辐射中颜色形态差异的背景下讨论了我们的结果，并提出了H. unicolor的积极模仿行为可能是由小鱼从其鱼类掠食者的小村庄进行的保护性（Batesian）模仿环境发起的，而不是由它的猎物。