Biggest Mantis Shrimp I have ever seen - Thailand

[archman]

The "spearing" mantis shrimps can't smash things, so your camera gear and aquariums are perfectly safe around them. Your physical person however is much more likely to get a nasty tissue wound if you fool around with them.

We call our little local Squilla's "thumb busters". Only handle with thick gloves!

 

[uglyredshoes]

hahahaa have you folks very eaten mantis shrimps before? ahaha.

 

[RonFrank]

Nice shot!

I can't help but to think what that dude would taste like!

 

[uglyredshoes]

hahaa lets just say.... shrimp. Still shrimp, not quite lobster yet. haha.

 

[MoonWrasse]

The "spearing" mantis shrimps can't smash things, so your camera gear and aquariums are perfectly safe around them. Your physical person however is much more likely to get a nasty tissue wound if you fool around with them.

We call our little local Squilla's "thumb busters". Only handle with thick gloves!

Interesting. I didn't realize there were spearing mantis.

According to this article, they aren't even shrimp.

Around 400 species of mantis shrimp have currently been described worldwide, which are commonly separated into two distinct groups determined by the manner of claws they possess:

* spearers are armed with spiny appendages topped with barbed tips, used to stab and snag prey and have a blunt, calcified club on the elbow
* smashers, on the other hand, possess a much more developed club and a more rudimentary spear; the club is used to bludgeon and smash their meals apart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp

 

[Damselfish]

interesting wiki entry, just when I was wondering if they were any good to eat - as they look sorta like a well defended lobster tail...

 

[Jamdiver]

After reading all of this, i'd make it a point to stay faaar away from Mantis shrimps!

 

[MoonWrasse]

interesting wiki entry, just when I was wondering if they were any good to eat - as they look sorta like a well defended lobster tail...

n Japanese cuisine, the mantis shrimp is eaten as sashimi and as a sushi topping, and is called shako (蝦&#34500.

In Cantonese cuisine, the mantis shrimp is a popular dish known as "pissing shrimp" (濑尿虾, Mandarin pinyin: lài niào xiā, modern Cantonese: laaih niuh h&#257 due to its tendency to urinate when cooked.

Better to look at then eat, IMHO

 

[archman]

According to this article, they aren't even shrimp.

Sure they're shrimp. So are penaeids, carideans, ostracods, euphausiaceans, and even mysid peracarids. "Shrimp" is a common name moniker that crosses various taxa. It's almost as bad as "bug".

If you refer to these things by their proper name (stomatopod), everyone excepting invertebrate zoologists is going to blankly stare at you.:06:

 

[MoonWrasse]

Sure they're shrimp. So are penaeids, carideans, ostracods, euphausiaceans, and even mysid peracarids. "Shrimp" is a common name moniker that crosses various taxa. It's almost as bad as "bug".

If you refer to these things by their proper name (stomatopod), everyone excepting invertebrate zoologists is going to blankly stare at you.:06:

According to this they aren't, however I understand the jist of what you're saying.

Mantis shrimp are marine crustaceans belonging to the order Stomatopoda, one part of the class Malacostraca, the largest class of crustaceans. They are neither shrimps nor mantids, but receive their name purely from the physical resemblance to both the terrestrial praying mantis and the shrimp. They may grow to a length of 20–30 cm, although most species are considerably smaller, and their carapace covers only the rear part of the head and the first three segments of the thorax.

Called "sea locusts" by ancient Assyrians, and now sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters" by modern divers - because of the relative ease the creature has in mutilating small appendages