Practice question

A crab spider concealed on a flower exemplifies aggressive mimicry when its color, posture, and sometimes ultraviolet reflectance make it resemble floral tissue or another attractive cue, thereby allowing it to approach or remain undetected by pollinating prey. The deception benefits the predator rather than protecting an edible organism from predation. Visiting bees or flies respond to the flower’s signals and come within striking distance before detecting the spider. Some flower-dwelling spiders are better described as cryptic because they merely match the background; the term aggressive mimicry is strongest when resemblance actively misleads prey about an object or signal of interest. Coral-snake resemblance and viceroy–monarch resemblance concern defensive mimicry, while the monarch’s own pattern is primarily an aposematic signal associated with chemical defense. The mechanistic distinction is functional: camouflage lowers detection by matching the environment, whereas aggressive mimicry exploits the sensory and decision rules of prey to facilitate capture. A flower-associated crab spider can combine both processes, but among the listed examples it best represents predatory deception.