mantis shrimp

Any of various burrowing predatory marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda, chiefly of tropical waters, having stalked eyes and a pair of knifelike claws that resemble the legs of a praying mantis and are used for striking or spearing prey. Also called stomatopod.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mantis shrimp

mantis crab

(Animals) any of various burrowing marine shrimplike crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda that have a pair of large grasping appendages: subclass Malacostraca. See also squilla

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

man′tis shrimp`

any of numerous shrimplike crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda having a greatly enlarged second pair of grasping forelimbs somewhat resembling those of a mantis.

[1870–75]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

mantis shrimp - tropical marine burrowing crustaceans with large grasping appendages

mantis crab

order Stomatopoda, Stomatopoda - mantis shrimps

stomatopod, stomatopod crustacean - a kind of crustacean

mantis prawn, squilla - a kind of mantis shrimp

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References in periodicals archive

Pedro De la Claws might only be a mantis shrimp - but he does not skimp when it comes to application.

Fishy trouble; SAYS

WORLD champion boxer Muhammad Ali may have stung like a bee, but nothing can compare with the knockout punch of the mantis shrimp, scientists report.

Shrimp of a thing packs a punch

And then there's the real heavies of the natural world - the mantis shrimp. These guys either spear their food or smash it to death with their massive claws.

What to watch

In the papers in this collection (CASSLS, 2001), for example, Robert Barlow and colleagues describe a finely elaborated model of horseshoe crab visual processing, revealing h ow the crab manages to navigate and find mates in a highly variable and noisy underwater environment (Barlow et al., 2001); Thomas Cronin and Justin Marshall give us insight into the marvelously complex mantis shrimp visual system, a unique and highly specialized tool for predation (Cronin and Marshall, 2001); Mandyam Srinivasan and co-workers introduce us to the secrets of insect vision (Srinivasan et al., 2001).

Sensory Architectures for Biologically Inspired Autonomous Robotics

Meet the mantis shrimp. Commonly nicknamed "thumb splitter," this crustacean (animal with outer shell and segmented body) features club-like claws that spear and pulverize prey 50 times faster than the blink of your eye.

Killer Shrimp

The six-inch Mantis shrimp will now be transferred - under guard - to a special bullet- proof tank at the Sea Life Centre in St Andrews.

PRISONER: SHELL BLOCK H; Scots get tough on hardman shrimp

The animal world is full of examples of extreme weaponry: the mantis shrimp's supersonic punch, the fiddler crab's giant claw, the African elephant's long tusks.

Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle

The bright orange fist-like club of the mantis shrimp, or stomatopod, a 4-inch long crustacean found in tropical waters, accelerates underwater faster than a 22-caliber bullet.

Club-like arm of mantis shrimp could inspire new military body armor

Albury personally likes the local Mantis Shrimp and Beck's Sili Legs patterns.

The marls of marsh harbour

Previously scientists thought no animal alive was faster than the mantis shrimp, which delivers a powerful kick at 23 metres per second.

Ant is fastest-striking predator

Among the creatures the new employee will need get to grips with are a mantis shrimp that sports front claws that can strike with the power of a speeding bullet.

Where the office sharks are real ..