Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are
carnivorous marine crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s of the
order Stomatopoda (). Stomatopods
branched off from other members of the class
Malacostraca
Malacostraca (from New Latin; ) is the largest of the six classes of crustaceans, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crabs, lobst ...
around 340 million years ago.
Mantis shrimp typically grow to around in length, while a few can reach up to .
A mantis shrimp's
carapace
A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...
(the hard, thick shell that covers crustaceans and some other species) covers only the rear part of the head and the first four segments of the
thorax
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...
. Varieties range in colour from shades of brown to vivid colours, with more than 450 species of mantis shrimp known. They are among the most important
predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
s in many shallow,
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
and
subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
marine
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
s. However, despite being common, they are poorly understood, as many species spend most of their lives sheltering in burrows and holes.
Called "sea locusts" by
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...
Assyrians, "prawn killers" in Australia, and now sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters"—because of the animal's ability to inflict painful wounds if handled incautiously—mantis shrimp have powerful
raptorial
The term ''raptorial'' implies much the same as ''predatory'' but most often refers to modifications of an arthropod's foreleg that make it function for the grasping of prey while it is consumed, where the gripping surfaces are formed from the o ...
s that are used to attack and kill prey either by spearing, stunning, or
dismember
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...
ing. Some mantis shrimp species have specialised calcified "clubs" that can strike with great power, while others have sharp forelimbs used to seize the prey (hence the term "
mantis
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...
" in its
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
).
Ecology
About 450 species of mantis shrimp have been discovered worldwide; all living species are in the
suborder Unipeltata, which arose around 193 million years ago.
These aggressive and typically solitary sea creatures spend most of their time hiding in rock formations or burrowing intricate passageways in the sea bed. They rarely exit their homes except to feed and relocate, and can be active during the day,
nocturnal
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
, or
crepuscular (active at twilight), depending on the species. Unlike most crustaceans, they sometimes hunt, chase, and kill prey. Although some live in temperate seas, most species live in tropical and subtropical waters in the
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
and
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
s between eastern Africa and Hawaii.
Habitat
Mantis shrimp live in burrows where they spend the majority of their time.
The two main categories of mantis shrimp—spearing and smashing—favour different locations for burrowing.
The spearing species build their habitat in soft
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...
s and the smashing species make burrows in hard substrata or coral cavities.
These two habitats are crucial for their ecology since they use burrows as sites for retreat and as locations for consuming their prey.
Burrows and coral cavities are also used as sites for mating and for keeping their eggs safe.
Stomatopod body size undergoes periodic growth which necessitates finding a new cavity or burrow that will fit the animal's new diameter.
Some spearing species can modify their pre-established habitat if the burrow is made of silt or mud, which can be expanded.
Claws
The mantis shrimp's second pair of thoracic appendages has been highly adapted for powerful close-range combat. The appendage differences divide mantis shrimp into two main types: those that hunt by impaling their prey with spear-like structures and those that smash prey with a powerful blow from a heavily mineralised club-like appendage. A considerable amount of damage can be inflicted after impact with these robust, hammer-like claws. This club is further divided into three subregions: the impact region, the periodic region, and the striated region. Mantis shrimp are commonly separated into many (most fall into spears and smashers but there are some outliers) distinct groups determined by the type of claws they possess:
*Smashers possess a much more developed club and a more rudimentary spear (which is nevertheless quite sharp and still used in fights between their own kind); the club is used to bludgeon and smash their meals apart. The inner aspect of the terminal portion of the appendage can also possess a sharp edge, used to cut prey while the mantis shrimp swims.
*Spearers are armed with spiny appendages - the spines having barbed tips - used to stab and snag prey.
Both types strike by rapidly unfolding and swinging their
raptorial
The term ''raptorial'' implies much the same as ''predatory'' but most often refers to modifications of an arthropod's foreleg that make it function for the grasping of prey while it is consumed, where the gripping surfaces are formed from the o ...
claws at the prey, and can inflict serious damage on victims significantly greater in size than themselves. In smashers, these two weapons are employed with blinding quickness, with an acceleration of 10,400
''g'' (102,000 m/s
2 or 335,000 ft/s
2) and speeds of from a standing start.
Because they strike so rapidly, they generate vapor-filled bubbles in the water between the appendage and the striking surface—known as
cavitation
Cavitation is a phenomenon in which the static pressure of a liquid reduces to below the liquid's vapour pressure, leading to the formation of small vapor-filled cavities in the liquid. When subjected to higher pressure, these cavities, cal ...
bubbles.
The collapse of these cavitation bubbles produces measurable forces on their prey in addition to the instantaneous forces of 1,500
newtons that are caused by the impact of the appendage against the striking surface, which means that the prey is hit twice by a single strike; first by the claw and then by the collapsing cavitation bubbles that immediately follow.
Even if the initial strike misses the prey, the resulting
shock wave
In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...
can be enough to stun or kill.
Smashers use this ability to attack
crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...
s,
snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...
s, rock
oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...
s, and other
molluscs
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estim ...
, their blunt clubs enabling them to crack the shells of their prey into pieces. Spearers, however, prefer the meat of softer animals, such as
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
, which their barbed claws can more easily slice and snag.
The appendages are being studied as a microscale analogue for new macroscale material structures.
* Hatchet: A primitive appendage that only a few species have this body plan and they are largely unresearched
* Spike Smashers (hammers or primitive smashers): possibly the "missing link" to relate to two most common (spear and smasher) to each other. Very uncommon and even less studied than hatchet type
Eyes
The eyes of the mantis shrimp are mounted on mobile
stalks and can move independently of each other. They are thought to have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom and have the most complex front-end for any visual system ever discovered.
Compared with the three types of
photoreceptor cell
A photoreceptor cell is a specialized type of neuroepithelial cell found in the retina that is capable of visual phototransduction. The great biological importance of photoreceptors is that they convert light (visible electromagnetic radiatio ...
that humans possess in their eyes, the eyes of a mantis shrimp have between 12 and 16 types of photoreceptor cells. Furthermore, some of these shrimp can tune the sensitivity of their long-wavelength colour vision to adapt to their environment. This phenomenon, called "spectral tuning", is species-specific. Cheroske et al. did not observe spectral tuning in ''
Neogonodactylus
''Neogonodactylus'' is a genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species a ...
oerstedii'', the species with the most monotonous natural photic environment. In ''N. bredini'', a species with a variety of habitats ranging from a depth of 5 to 10 m (although it can be found down to 20 m below the surface), spectral tuning was observed, but the ability to alter wavelengths of maximum absorbance was not as pronounced as in ''N. wennerae'', a species with much higher ecological/photic habitat diversity. The diversity of spectral tuning in Stomatopoda is also hypothesized to be directly linked to mutations in the
retinal
Retinal (also known as retinaldehyde) is a polyene chromophore. Retinal, bound to proteins called opsins, is the chemical basis of visual phototransduction, the light-detection stage of visual perception (vision).
Some microorganisms use retin ...
binding pocket of the
opsin
Animal opsins are G-protein-coupled receptors and a group of proteins made light-sensitive via a chromophore, typically retinal. When bound to retinal, opsins become Retinylidene proteins, but are usually still called opsins regardless. Most pro ...
.
Despite the impressive range of wavelengths that mantis shrimp have the ability to see, they do not have the ability to discriminate wavelengths less than 25
nm apart. It is suggested that not discriminating between closely positioned wavelengths allows these organisms to make determinations of its surroundings with little processing delay. Having little delay in evaluating surroundings is important for mantis shrimp, since they are territorial and frequently in combat.
Each
compound eye
A compound eye is a visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidia, which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells which disti ...
is made up of tens of thousands of
ommatidia
The compound eyes of arthropods like insects, crustaceans and millipedes are composed of units called ommatidia (singular: ommatidium). An ommatidium contains a cluster of photoreceptor cells surrounded by support cells and pigment cells. The ou ...
, clusters of photoreceptor cells.
Each eye consists of two flattened hemispheres separated by parallel rows of specialised ommatidia, collectively called the midband. The number of omatidial rows in the midband ranges from two to six.
This divides the eye into three regions. This configuration enables mantis shrimp to see objects with three parts of the same eye. In other words, each eye possesses trinocular vision, and therefore
depth perception
Depth perception is the ability to perceive distance to objects in the world using the visual system and visual perception. It is a major factor in perceiving the world in three dimensions. Depth perception happens primarily due to stereopsis an ...
. The upper and lower hemispheres are used primarily for recognition of form and motion, like the eyes of many other crustaceans.
Mantis shrimp can perceive wavelengths of light ranging from
deep ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...
(300 nm) to
far-red (720 nm) and
polarized light
Polarization (also polarisation) is a property applying to transverse waves that specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the ...
.
In mantis shrimp in the superfamilies Gonodactyloidea, Lysiosquilloidea, and Hemisquilloidea, the midband is made up of six omatodial rows. Rows 1 to 4 process colours, while rows 5 and 6 detect
circularly or
linearly polarized light. Twelve types of photoreceptor cells are in rows 1 to 4, four of which detect ultraviolet light.
Rows 1 to 4 of the midband are specialised for colour vision, from deep ultraviolet to far red. Their UV vision can detect five different frequency bands in the deep ultraviolet. To do this, they use two photoreceptors in combination with four different colour filters.
They are not currently believed to be sensitive to infrared light. The optical elements in these rows have eight different classes of visual pigments and the
rhabdom
The compound eyes of arthropods like insects, crustaceans and millipedes are composed of units called ommatidia (singular: ommatidium). An ommatidium contains a cluster of photoreceptor cells surrounded by support cells and pigment cells. The ou ...
(area of eye that absorbs light from a single direction) is divided into three different
pigmented layers (tiers), each for different wavelengths. The three tiers in rows 2 and 3 are separated by colour filters (intrarhabdomal filters) that can be divided into four distinct classes, two classes in each row. It is organised like a sandwich - a tier, a colour filter of one class, a tier again, a colour filter of another class, and then a last tier. These colour filters allow the mantis shrimp to see with diverse colour vision. Without the filters, the pigments themselves range only a small segment of the visual spectrum, about 490 to 550 nm.
Rows 5 and 6 are also segregated into different tiers, but have only one class of visual pigment, the ninth class, and are specialised for polarization vision. Depending upon the species, they can detect circularly polarized light, linearly polarised light, or both. A tenth class of visual pigment is found in the upper and lower hemispheres of the eye.
Some species have at least 16 photoreceptor types, which are divided into four classes (their spectral sensitivity is further tuned by colour filters in the retinas), 12 for colour analysis in the different wavelengths (including six which are sensitive to ultraviolet light
) and four for analysing polarised light. By comparison, most humans have only four visual pigments, of which three are dedicated to see colour, and human lenses block ultraviolet light. The visual information leaving the
retina
The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...
seems to be processed into numerous parallel
data stream
In connection-oriented communication, a data stream is the transmission of a sequence of digitally encoded coherent signals to convey information. Typically, the transmitted symbols are grouped into a series of packets.
Data streaming has bec ...
s leading into the
brain
A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...
, greatly reducing the analytical requirements at higher levels.
Six species of mantis shrimp have been reported to be able to detect circularly polarized light, which has not been documented in any other animal, and whether it is present across all species is unknown.
Some of their biological quarter-
waveplate
A waveplate or retarder is an optics, optical device that alters the Polarization (waves), polarization state of a light wave travelling through it. Two common types of waveplates are the ''half-wave plate'', which shifts the polarization directio ...
s perform more uniformly over the visual spectrum than any current man-made polarising optics, and this could inspire new types of optical media that would outperform early 21st century
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
Disc technology.
The species ''
Gonodactylus smithii
''Gonodactylus smithii'', also known as the purple spot mantis shrimp or Smith’s mantis shrimp, is a species of the smasher type of mantis shrimp. ''G. smithii'' are the first animals discovered to be capable of dynamic polarization vision. The ...
'' is the only organism known to simultaneously detect the four linear and two circular polarisation components required to measure all four
Stokes parameters
The Stokes parameters are a set of values that describe the polarization state of electromagnetic radiation. They were defined by George Gabriel Stokes in 1852, as a mathematically convenient alternative to the more common description of incoher ...
, which yield a full description of polarisation. It is thus believed to have optimal polarisation vision.
It is the only animal known to have dynamic polarisation vision. This is achieved by rotational eye movements to maximise the polarisation contrast between the object in focus and its background. Since each eye moves independently from the other, it creates two separate streams of visual information.
The midband covers only about 5 to 10° of the visual field at any given instant, but like most crustaceans, mantis shrimps' eyes are mounted on stalks. In mantis shrimps, the movement of the stalked eye is unusually free, and can be driven up to 70° in all possible axes of movement by eight eyecup muscles divided into six functional groups. By using these muscles to scan the surroundings with the midband, they can add information about forms, shapes, and landscape, which cannot be detected by the upper and lower hemispheres of the eyes. They can also track moving objects using large, rapid eye movements where the two eyes move independently. By combining different techniques, including movements in the same direction, the midband can cover a very wide range of the visual field.
The huge diversity seen in mantis shrimp photoreceptors likely comes from ancient
gene duplication
Gene duplication (or chromosomal duplication or gene amplification) is a major mechanism through which new genetic material is generated during molecular evolution. It can be defined as any duplication of a region of DNA that contains a gene. ...
events.
[ One interesting consequence of this duplication is the lack of correlation between opsin transcript number and physiologically expressed photoreceptors.][ One species may have six different opsin genes, but only express one spectrally distinct photoreceptor. Over the years, some mantis shrimp species have lost the ancestral phenotype, although some still maintain 16 distinct photoreceptors and four light filters. Species that live in a variety of photic environments have high selective pressure for photoreceptor diversity, and maintain ancestral phenotypes better than species that live in murky waters or are primarily nocturnal.][
]
Suggested advantages of visual system
What advantage sensitivity to polarisation confers is unclear; however, polarisation vision is used by other animals for sexual signaling and secret communication that avoids the attention of predators. This mechanism could provide an evolutionary advantage; it only requires small changes to the cell in the eye and could easily lead to natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...
.
The eyes of mantis shrimps may enable them to recognise different types of coral, prey species (which are often transparent or semitransparent), or predators, such as barracuda
A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...
, which have shimmering scales. Alternatively, the manner in which they hunt (very rapid movements of the claws) may require very accurate ranging information, which would require accurate depth perception.
During mating rituals, mantis shrimps actively fluoresce
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...
, and the wavelength of this fluorescence matches the wavelengths detected by their eye pigments. Females are only fertile during certain phases of the tidal cycle
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables can ...
; the ability to perceive the phase of the moon
Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...
may, therefore, help prevent wasted mating efforts. It may also give these shrimps information about the size of the tide, which is important to species living in shallow water near the shore.
The capacity to see UV light may enable observation of otherwise hard-to-detect prey on coral reefs.
Researchers suspect that the broader variety of photoreceptors in the eyes of mantis shrimps allows visual information to be preprocessed by the eyes instead of the brain, which would otherwise have to be larger to deal with the complex task of opponent process
The opponent process is a color theory that states that the human visual system interprets information about color by processing signals from photoreceptor cells in an antagonistic manner. The opponent-process theory suggests that there are thr ...
color perception used by other species, thus requiring more time and energy. While the eyes themselves are complex and not yet fully understood, the principle of the system appears to be simple. It has a similar set of sensitivities to the human visual system, but works in the opposite manner. In the human brain, the inferior temporal cortex has a huge number of colour-specific neurons, which process visual impulses from the eyes to create colourful experiences. The mantis shrimp instead uses the different types of photoreceptors in its eyes to perform the same function as the human brain neurons, resulting in a hardwired and more efficient system for an animal that requires rapid colour identification. Humans have fewer types of photoreceptors, but more colour-tuned neurons, while mantis shrimps appears to have fewer colour neurons and more classes of photoreceptors.
A publication by researchers from the University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
stated that the compound eyes of mantis shrimp can detect cancer and the activity of neuron
A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...
s, because they are sensitive to detecting polarised light that reflects differently from cancerous and healthy tissue. The study claims that this ability can be replicated through a camera through the use of aluminium nanowires to replicate polarisation-filtering microvilli on top of photodiodes. In February 2016, the shrimps were found to be using a form of reflector of polarised light not seen in nature or human technology before. It allows the manipulation of light across the structure rather than through its depth, the typical way polarisers work. This allows the structure to be both small and microscopically thin, and still be able to produce big, bright, colourful polarised signals.
Behaviour
Mantis shrimps are long-lived and exhibit complex behaviour, such as ritualised fighting. Some species use fluorescent
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...
patterns on their bodies for signalling with their own and maybe even other species, expanding their range of behavioural signals. They can learn and remember well, and are able to recognise individual neighbours with which they frequently interact. They can recognise them by visual signs and even by individual smell. Many have developed complex social behaviours to defend their space from rivals.
In a lifetime, they can have as many as 20 or 30 breeding episodes. Depending on the species, the eggs can be laid and kept in a burrow, or they can be carried around under the female's tail until they hatch. Also depending on the species, males and females may come together only to mate, or they may bond in monogamous
Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...
, long-term relationships.
In the monogamous species, the mantis shrimps remain with the same partner up to 20 years. They share the same burrow and may be able to coordinate their activities. Both sexes often take care of the eggs (bi-parental care). In '' Pullosquilla'' and some species in '' Nannosquilla'', the female lays two clutches of eggs – one that the male tends and one that the female tends. In other species, the female looks after the eggs while the male hunts for both of them. After the eggs hatch, the offspring may spend up to three months as plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...
.
Although stomatopods typically display the standard types of movement seen in true shrimp
The Caridea, commonly known as caridean shrimp or true shrimp, are an infraorder of shrimp within the order Decapoda. This infraorder contains all species of true shrimp. They are found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Many ...
and lobster
Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...
s, one species, '' Nannosquilla decemspinosa'', has been observed flipping itself into a crude wheel. The species lives in shallow, sandy areas. At low tides, ''N. decemspinosa'' is often stranded by its short rear legs, which are sufficient for movement when the body is supported by water, but not on dry land. The mantis shrimp then performs a forward flip in an attempt to roll towards the next tide pool. ''N. '' has been observed to roll repeatedly for , but specimens typically travel less than .
Culinary uses
In Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...
, the mantis shrimp species '' Oratosquilla oratoria'', called , is eaten boiled as a sushi
is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is " ...
topping, and occasionally raw as sashimi
is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce.
Origin
The word ''sashimi'' means "pierced body", i.e. "刺身" = ''sashimi'', where 刺 し = ''sashi'' (pierced, stuck) ...
.
Mantis shrimps are abundant along Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
's coast, known in Vietnamese as ''bề bề'' or ''tôm tít''. In regions such as Nha Trang, they are called ''bàn chải'', named for its resemblance to a scrub brush. The shrimp can be steamed, boiled, grilled, or dried, used with pepper
Pepper or peppers may refer to:
Food and spice
* Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant
** Black pepper
* ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae
** Bell pepper
** Chili ...
, salt and lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
, fish sauce
Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, P ...
and tamarind
Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs ...
, or fennel
Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...
.
In Cantonese cuisine
Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine ( or ) is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Maca ...
, the mantis shrimp is known as "urinating shrimp" () because of their tendency to shoot a jet of water when picked up. After cooking, their flesh is closer to that of lobster
Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...
s than that of shrimp
Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...
, and like lobsters, their shells are quite hard and require some pressure to crack. One common preparation is first deep-frying, then stir-frying with garlic and chili peppers. They may also be boiled or steamed.
In the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
countries, the mantis shrimp ''Squilla mantis
''Squilla mantis'' is a species of mantis shrimp found in shallow coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean: it is also known as "pacchero" or "canocchia". Its abundance has led to it being the only commercially fishe ...
'' is a common seafood, especially on the Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...
coasts ('' canocchia'') and the Gulf of Cádiz
The Gulf of Cádiz ( es, Golfo de Cádiz, pt, Golfo de Cádis) is the arm of the Atlantic Ocean between Cabo de Santa Maria, the southernmost point of mainland Portugal and Cape Trafalgar at the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar. Two maj ...
(''galera'').
In the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, the mantis shrimp is known as ''tatampal, hipong-dapa,'' ''pitik-pitik'', or ''alupihang-dagat'', and is cooked and eaten like any other shrimp.
In Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, some mantis shrimp have grown unusually large in the contaminated water of the Grand Ala Wai Canal
The Ala Wai Canal is an artificial waterway in Honolulu, Hawaii which serves as the northern boundary of the tourist district of Waikiki. It was created in 1928 to drain the rice paddies and swamps which would eventually become Waikiki. It also ...
in Waikiki
Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii.
Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six beaches in the district ...
. The dangers normally associated with consuming seafood caught in contaminated waters are present in these mantis shrimp.[
]
Aquaria
Some saltwater aquarists keep stomatopods in captivity. The peacock mantis is especially colourful and desired in the trade.
While some aquarists value mantis shrimps, others consider them harmful pests, because they are voracious predators, eating other desirable inhabitants of the tank. Additionally, some rock-burrowing species can do more damage to live rock
Live rock is rock from the ocean that has been introduced into a saltwater aquarium. Along with live sand, it confers to the closed marine system multiple benefits desired by the saltwater aquarium hobbyist. The name sometimes leads to misunders ...
than the fishkeeper would prefer.
The live rock with mantis shrimp burrows is considered useful by some in the marine aquarium
A marine aquarium is an aquarium that keeps ocean, marine plants and animals in a contained environment. Marine aquaria are further subdivided by hobbyists into fish only (FO), fish only with live rock (FOWLR), and reef aquarium, reef aquaria. Fi ...
trade and is often collected. A piece of live rock not uncommonly conveys a live mantis shrimp into an aquarium. Once inside the tank, it may feed on fish and other inhabitants, and is notoriously difficult to catch when established in a well-stocked tank. While there are accounts of this shrimp breaking glass tanks, they are rare and are usually the result of the shrimp being kept in too small a tank. While stomatopods do not eat coral, smashers can damage it if they try to make a home within it.
Example species
*Family Gonodactylidae
Gonodactylidae is a family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of it ...
**''Gonodactylus smithii
''Gonodactylus smithii'', also known as the purple spot mantis shrimp or Smith’s mantis shrimp, is a species of the smasher type of mantis shrimp. ''G. smithii'' are the first animals discovered to be capable of dynamic polarization vision. The ...
''
*Family Hemisquillidae
''Hemisquilla'' is a genus of mantis shrimp, and the only genus in the family Hemisquillidae. It contains four species distributed in Australia and the Americas. Species in the genus typically eat snails, fish, rock oysters, and smaller crustace ...
**'' Hemisquilla ensigera''
**''Hemisquilla australiensis
''Hemisquilla australiensis'' is a species of mantis shrimp native to Australia and also found in New Zealand.
References
Stomatopoda
Crustaceans of Australia
{{Malacostraca-stub ...
''
**'' Hemisquilla braziliensis''
**'' Hemisquilla californiensis''
*Family Lysiosquillidae
The Lysiosquillidae are a family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being ...
**''Lysiosquillina maculata
''Lysiosquillina maculata'', the zebra mantis shrimp, striped mantis shrimp or razor mantis, is a species of mantis shrimp found across the Indo-Pacific region from East Africa to the Galápagos and Hawaiian Islands. At a length up to 40 cm ...
'', zebra mantis shrimp or striped mantis shrimp, the largest species
*Family Nannosquillidae
Nannosquillidae is a family (biology), family of stomatopods, comprising the following genera:
*''Acanthosquilla'' Manning, 1963
*''Alachosquilla'' Schotte & Manning, 1993
*''Austrosquilla'' Manning, 1966
*''Bigelowina'' Schotte & Manning, 1993
...
**'' Nannosquilla decemspinosa''
**'' Platysquilla eusebia''
*Family Odontodactylidae
**''Odontodactylus scyllarus
''Odontodactylus scyllarus'', commonly known as the peacock mantis shrimp, harlequin mantis shrimp, painted mantis shrimp, clown mantis shrimp or rainbow mantis shrimp, is a large stomatopod native to the epipelagic seabed across the Indo-Pacifi ...
'', peacock mantis shrimp
*Family Pseudosquillidae
**'' Pseudosquilla ciliata'', common mantis shrimp
*Family Squillidae
Squillidae is a family of mantis shrimp, the only family in the superfamily Squilloidea. The type genus is '' Squilla''. It is the stomatopod family with the most genera, as follows:
*''Alima'' Leach, 1817
*'' Alimopsis'' Manning, 1977
*'' A ...
**
**'' Rissoides desmaresti''
**'' Squilla empusa''
**''Squilla mantis
''Squilla mantis'' is a species of mantis shrimp found in shallow coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean: it is also known as "pacchero" or "canocchia". Its abundance has led to it being the only commercially fishe ...
''
*Family Tetrasquillidae
Tetrasquillidae is a family of mantis shrimp containing ten genera:
*'' Acaenosquilla'' Manning, 1991
*'' Allosquilla'' Manning, 1977
*'' Colubrisquilla'' Ahyong, 2012Ahyong, S.T. 2012The marine fauna of New Zealand: mantis shrimps (Crustacea: S ...
**'' Heterosquilla tricarinata'', New Zealand
A large number of mantis shrimp species were first scientifically described by one carcinologist
A carcinologist is a scientist who studies crustaceans or is otherwise involved in carcinology
Carcinology is a branch of zoology that consists of the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, ...
, Raymond B. Manning Raymond Brendan Manning (October 11, 1934 – January 18, 2000) was an American carcinologist, specialising in alpha taxonomy and mantis shrimp.
Biography
Raymond Manning was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934, but moved almost immediately with hi ...
; the collection of stomatopods he amassed is the largest in the world, covering 90% of the known species.
See also
*
References
External links
Hoplocarida: Stomatopoda fact sheet—Guide to the marine zooplankton of south eastern Australia
The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods—mantis shrimp
Mantis shrimp—colourful and aggressive
*
Caldwell Lab at the University of California, Berkeley
Patek Lab at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
*
*
Dana Point Fish Company—Top and Bottom Views of Mantis Shrimp
TED talk
Deep Look (PBS)
{{Authority control
Cantonese cuisine
Commercial crustaceans
Edible crustaceans
Hawaiian cuisine
Japanese seafood
Malacostraca