History Main / MimicSpecies

* The spider-tailed horned viper, which is native to Iran, uses an even more sophisticated lure; as its name implies, the end of its tail is shaped like a spider, and it completes the disguise by wiggling the tail back and forth so that it looks like a spider skittering around. Insectivorous birds coming to try and nab the "spider" will suddenly find themselves being attacked by a bird-eating snake. Interestingly, the snake only seems to feed on migratory birds, suggesting that birds native to the area have already learned to recognize the difference between it and real spiders.

* The Cabbage Frog in ''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Almanack'' is a frog that grows large flaps of skin that resemble cabbage leaves, and then waits for butterflies to try to lay eggs on it.

* The mealybug destroyer looks very similar to the mealybugs that it feeds on during its larval stage.

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': The mimicking falsehound is a species of the canine-like lycanines that mimic the appearance of their distant, sapient relative, the northhound, as a way of deterring predators like the [[MixAndMatchCritters tigerilla]] or other lycanine species. They do this because many of these predators will avoid the northhound due to the latter's capacity for weapon use and planned retaliation, the falsehound will even mimic those behaviors by carrying sticks in their mouth even if they can't use them as a weapon like the northhounds can. Some individuals will even use their appearance to steal from the northhounds' food caches by gaining their scent from their latrines and passively imitating their behavior to sneak past. They're usually foiled when the packs start using a password system, which the non-sapient falsehound isn't capable of understanding, and are chased off. Most northhounds only see them as a nuisance and are content to simply drive them away, but the more xenophobic drysanders see them as trickster demons and attempt to kill any that try to sneak in, a practice that sometimes gets foreign northhounds lynched when they don't understand the drysander's dialect.

* The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin spider-tailed horned viper]] relies on this to hunt. Its tail is evolved to resemble an arachnid, which it uses to lure in birds for food.

* ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'' has two examples, both in the Antarctic Rainforest segment.

** The Spitfire Beetle is this to a Spitfire Bird. The bird normally goes to a certain flower to stock up on chemicals for its SuperSpit. Four Spitfire Beetles work together to form a fake flower, attracting the bird, which they all jump on and take down.

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': The mimicking falsehound is a species of the canine-like lycanines that mimic the appearance of their distant, sapient relative, the northhound, as a way of deterring predators like the [[MixAndMatchCritters tigerilla]] or other lycanine species. They do this because many of these predators will avoid the northhound due to the latter's capacity for weapon use and planned retaliation, the falsehound will even mimic those behaviors by carrying sticks in their mouth even if they can't use them as a weapon like the northhounds can. Some individuals will even use there appearance to steal from the northhound's food caches by gaining their scent from their latrines and passively imitating their behavior to sneak past. They're usually foiled when the packs start using a password system which the non-sapient falsehound isn't capable of understanding and are chased off. Most northhounds only see them as a nuisance and are content to simply drive them away but the more xenophobic drysanders see them as trickster demons and attempt to kill any that try to sneak in, a practice that sometimes gets foreign northhounds lynched when they don't understand the drysander's dialect.

** The wolf-in-sheep's-clothing is a monster from ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons1stEdition''. It's a plant creature looking like a tree stump with root tentacles and a hidden maw, with a growth on top that resembles a small furry creature to attract its preys. The classical illustration shows it with a white bunny surmounting the trunk. It was adapted to ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' and 5th Edition, although here the lure is no longer part of the creature but a corpse animated by tendrils.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': Mochtroids are copies of the [[LifeDrinker Metroids]] that are found in Maridia. They only have one internal nucleus instead of the three that real Metroids have, they can't securely latch onto Samus, and they can be killed much more easily.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'': X Parasites work by assimilating and then replicating whatever they infect to a near indistinguishable degree once they get used to how a host works.

** The Spitfire Beetle mimics the flowers of the trees that Spitfire Birds gather their reactive chemicals from. When a Spitfire Bird arrives at the fake flower to gather more chemicals, the beetles attack and kill it.

** The wolf-in-sheep's-clothing is a monster from ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons1stEdition''. It's a plant creature looking like a tree stump with root tentacles and a hidden maw, with a growth on top that resembles a small furry creature to attract its preys. The classical illustration shows it with a rabbit surmounting the trunk. It was adapted to ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' and 5th Edition, although here the lure is no longer part of the creature but a corpse animated by tendrils.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Gas spores are creatures that greatly resemble much more dangerous beholders. They are almost completely harmless if left alone. They are also extremely fragile, and any damage to their main body will cause the creature to burst open and spray toxic spores on everyone nearby. Gas spores are SchmuckBait in RPG monster form.

Website/{{Wikipedia}} has an article regarding mimicry [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry here]], making this TruthInTelevision. SuperTrope to ChestMonster, where a species disguises itself as an innocuous item, usually found in Video Games, to trick the player into a hostile encounter. Compare AssInALionSkin, where an animal disguises itself as another, but on an individual and artificial scale.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Gas spores are creatures that greatly resemble much more dangerous beholders. They are almost completely harmless if left alone. They are also extremely fragile, and any attack on their main body will cause the creature to burst open and spray toxic spores on everyone nearby. Gas spores are SchmuckBait in RPG monster form.

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pokemon_mimicry.png]]]]

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[[quoteright:131:[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pikachuandmimikyu_5.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:131:Despite the similar appearance, their species are unrelated.[[note]]All [[KillerRabbit it]] wants is [[IJustWantToBeYou be as loved as Pikachu]].[[/note]]]]

* The ''ComicBook/Marsupilami'' comics have an example that's mostly played for laugh. The Palombian [[SdrawkcabName Imalipusram]] is a thin and lengthy snake colored yellow and black, already looking like the long tail of a Marsupilami. When attacked by a predator such as a jaguar, it inflates a sack at the extremity of its tail, which takes the shape of a Marsupilami's body. Most predators are wary of tangling with an adult Marsupilami, and will be scared away from eating the snake.

!!Examples

* The Viceroy Butterfly is one of the more well-known cases of this, imitating the more well-known Monarch Butterfly as a defense mechanism against potential predators (The Monarch is known to taste really bad to any predator unlucky enough to eat one, so any butterfly bearing similar marks to the Monarch is immediately avoided). ScienceMarchesOn, though, as it turns out that the Viceroy ''also'' tastes bad to predators, and it appears that both species evolved to mimic each other to their mutual benefit. This is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Müllerian_mimicry Müllerian mimicry]].

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Romulans, being related to Vulcans, look a lot like them, except for the fact that most of them have a V-shaped ridge on their foreheads. Because of this, they often pretend to be Vulcans for ulterior reasons. Technically they're the same species, as Romulans are the descendants of a group of Vulcans who rejected the ideology of logic and chose to leave their homeworld.