Treachery. It is underhanded and it is ugly, but it is also powerful. It has the potential to rip apart the strongest social bonds humanity knows.

It can split families and shatter nations.

But because it is marked by two superb literary devices, surprise and dramatic change,

our best stories are built on it.

And when it happens in the real world, when treacherous behavior occurs at the highest levels, we become fixated on it.

Brutus, Judas, Guy Fawkes, the Rosenbergs, Snowden, Trump, quite possibly, and this week another person who worked for him, Omarosa.

When treachery surfaces, the media latches onto the story and rips out everything they can.

Much like today's animal, the Trojan horse of the natural world.

The false cleaner fish.

Aspedontas.

Taniatus.

I'm Mackin.

This is species.

Welcome to the show.

Today we are going to talk about an animal who is right up there with Brutus and Judas. All right, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but we are going to talk

about a big time trickster on this show today, and it is going to be a lot of fun. So, happy

Species Sunday, subscribe wherever you can, send the show to someone who likes animals, find the show on Facebook and Twitter, both at Species Podcast. Find me personally on Twitter at Mac and Murphy. Five star reviews from iTunes and Facebook are read aloud on the show, every show at the end of the show. We got a lot to read today. Very exciting and it really helps me out. So thanks. Thank you, Eric and the

animals for playing me in. And now, without further ado, I present to you the false cleaner fish.

The story of the Trojan horse is one of the oldest in the western mythos.

It survives because it's good and because it might be true.

Traditionally, it's told as follows.

After a 10-year siege by Greece upon the independent city of Troy, the Greeks realized that they would need to get creative to break them down.

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