ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the signal's form which is the result of selection for an optical signal. A deceptive signal benefits the sender at the expense of the receiver. Most importantly, the selective advantage depends on the receiver's response, and such a system must, like birth control, face constant selection for its own failure. In the case of aposematic coloration, the actual selective mechanism producing the signal is unclear. The selection pressures maintaining the signal, once evolved, are much easier to understand. The most widely known example of unilateral interspecific communication involving misinformation is Batesian mimicry. As with aposematic coloration, stabilizing selection will produce a conspicuous "advertising" coloration in cleaners, and the coloration of such species should be species-typical with low variation. However, individual recognition could easily be coded for by site constancy; virtually all obligatory cleaners are territorial and site constant. Moreover, factors involved in intraspecific social interaction might also produce variation for individual identification.
