Whats the difference between mantis shrimps and pistol shrimps?
(taken from an email I sent to a reader) NOTE: For pics of the two types go to this Marine Aquarist Society of Australia page. • At the very basic level, the two are very different critters, with pistol shrimps belonging to a completely different group of organisms which include lobsters and crabs, while mantis shrimps make up the only living order in a superorder called the hoplocarida. You can tell both apart very quickly by the ff: • Pistol shrimps have two relatively large claws (one significantly larger than the other) that it holds extended in front of it, while mantis shrimps hold their enlarged forelimbs very close to their bodies. • The carapace of a pistols is relatively “long” (ie. covers the head and thoracic segments), whereas in mantises the carapace is extremely short, which makes them look more “wormlike” because of the exposed abdomen and some thoracic segments. This makes the mantises very flexible, and they like rolling around a lot inside their burrows or cavities.
