Mantis Shrimp Profile

The Mantis Shrimp (or ‘Stomatopod’) is a small, aggressive marine Crustacean, that inhabit tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Eastern Africa and Hawaii.

They are beautiful and vibrant in colour, but also deadly, able to club prey with the force of a bullet, or spike them with their sharp claws.

They are members of the order Stomatopoda and taxonomy group Crustacea, which are hard-shelled animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and more.

According to their hunting style, they can be divided into two hunter categories:

1) Smashers

2) Spearers

*Smasher Mantis Shrimp*

As the name indicates, the smashers have blunt clubs on their raptorial arms. The term “raptorial arm” is pretty much the same as the term “predatory arm.” It describes how the forelegs of some arthropods are modified to grasp their victims while they consume them.

Smasher mantis shrimp use the clubs to smash and open crabs, clams, oysters, and other creatures with hard shells.

*Spearer Mantis Shrimp*

Spearers ambush their prey.

Fish species with soft skin fall victim to spear attacks. The fish aren’t nearly fast enough to escape the quick bursts of punching speed executed by mantis shrimp.    

Spearers have barbed spears on the end of their arms. They surprise their prey and release the spears surprisingly fast. Even though spearers plenty fast enough to put food on their mantis tables, their attacks are slower than the attacks of smashers.

Can you tell which appendage is from a SMASHER Vs. a SPEARER??????  Let's talk about this during class today!

Please don't forget to check out our latest Aquatic Art assignment in google classroom, which is an all about mantis shrimp presentation using Canva!

Check out my example below to see what you will engage in soon!