mantis shrimp

mantis shrimp marine crustacean characterized by a pair of enlarged appendages, called maxillipeds, that form powerful claws for seizing prey. The last two segments of each of these legs are strong and sharp, and the end segment is folded back over the next segment to make a scissorslike cut. Mantis shrimps have stalked eyes and flattened abdomens with appendages bearing gills. They prefer warm shallow seas. A number of species are quite large, reaching 1 ft (30 cm) or more in size. Mantis shrimps are an important sea food outside the Western Hemisphere. They are classified separately from either true shrimps or praying mantises, whose forelimbs the maxillipeds superficially resemble. Mantis shrimps are grouped in the phylum Arthropoda , subphylum Crustacea, class Malacostraca.

mantis shrimps See STOMATOPODA.

Stomatopoda (mantis shrimps; class Malacostraca, superorder Hoplocarida) Order of crustaceans, 5–36 cm long, many of which are brightly coloured, with striped or mottled patterns. The body is flattened dorsoventrally and there is a shield-like carapace. The entire dorsal surface is armed with ridges and spines, and the abdomen is broad and segmented. The head has stalked, compound eyes with a median nauplius eye; large, triramous, first antennae; and smaller third antennae. The thoracic appendages are uniramous and subchelate, with the second pair modified for raptorial prey capture. As the common name implies, the large second thoracic appendages are equipped with a movable process armed with spines and barbs. Prey is caught or speared by a rapid extension of this process. Many species inhabit bottom burrows or crevices in coral or rock, and defend their burrows using the telson as a shield. They may leave their burrows to stalk prey (e.g. crabs) and swim using their pleopods, steering by means of their large antennal scales and uropods. Apart from Isopoda, mantis shrimps are the only malacostracans that have abdominal gills. Many species exhibit parental care of their eggs. They comprise the only order of their superorder, with approximately 300 species. Most are tropical but some live in temperate waters.