Is this a Mantis Shrimp?

A mate stumbled across this critter on a night dive at Sha'ab Rumi in Sudan, first take was that it's a mantis shrimp, but I had thought they were more colourful and normally found around the pacific?

Can anyone identify this critter?

Cheers!

You bet it is! Many mantis shrimp make and live in burrows.

Cheers

James

Mantis indeed, called a Stomatopod. Have never seen one out of their home

Terry

Great. Thanks Terry & James!

That's no ordinary shrimp! Mantis shrimp have got a mean streak a mile wide!

Those burrows are guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no diver yet has fought with it and lived! Iv'e seen the bones of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair. So, brave divers, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, go no further, for DEATH awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth!

Don't laugh, it's the "Fastest Claw in the West!"

James

Geez, for the fastest claw in the west he wasn't moving much. Hovered about him for a few minutes and got nothing but the odd blink of his rather alien eyes.

Going by Dave's post, I'm going to assume he was giving me the evil eye, trying to psyche me out.

I'm certainly no expert in this, so take this for what it's worth, but this mantis looks like a Lysiosquillina (maybe a Lysiosquillina Maculata) although it's hard to say with most of the animal hidden in its burrow...

Those burrows are guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no diver yet has fought with it and lived! Iv'e seen the bones of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair. So, brave divers, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, go no further, for DEATH awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth!

One, two, five! (Three sir!) Three!

Gerard - Mantis shrimp are generally found circumtropically with some extension into temperate regions (there is at least one well-known species off the California coast).

Its just a wee bunny......

I warned you!

Hi Gerardh,

Basically there are two orders of Mantis shrimp, lets call them the Slashers and the Bashers. What you have in your image is a Slasher. Thats to say they have two razor sharp (pinkies beware) apendages which fold under themselves offering the shrimp the guise of the Praying mantis, hence the name. Check out 'Island of the Sharks' by Howard Hall and you'll see a Slasher preying on a Jaw Fish, impressive speed.

The other camp, the Bashers, are the colorful variety you mentioned in your post. As opposed to having a slashing action these, as their name implies, rely on a hitting force to capture their prey. I have heard that the hitting force with which they shatter crabs and other crustaceans and small fish, is equal to a .22 caliber weapon but don't quote me on that. These tend to be smaller and more colorful than their Slashing counterparts.

Cheers,

Mark.

Cheers Mark, that's a great discription of the critter... and why I had no idea what it was. Since posting this I saw a small piece on a free-walking Mantis Schrimp, similar to the one I shot, falling prey to a Sole on the Blue Planet the other night. Truely a bizarre creature.

Just look at the bones!

ive always known these critters as spearing mantis shrimps

I love seeing them in the wild. Some of them will actually interact with you. Sadly, while visiting a seafood restaurant in Borneo, I saw a tank full of large soda bottles. Inside each bottle was a large mantis shrimp. They are eaten there and they have to put them in a bottle to keep them from killing each other. I hated seeing them there.