Peacock mantis shrimp
Odontodactylus scyllarus
— Where the name comes from
Odontodactylus is “toothed finger”, from odoús, odóntos, the tooth, and dáktylos, the finger. Scyllarus recalls Scylla, the sea monster that in the Odyssey snatches six of Odysseus’s companions from the ship and devours them: for an animal that strikes faster than the eye can follow, the reference is apt. It is one of the rare cases in which a mythological name really does describe the behaviour.
— Facts
- Group
- Crustaceans · Malacostraca · Maxillopoda
- Order
- Mantis shrimps
- Habitat
- Coral reefs and sandy bottoms, in dug burrows
- Range
- Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to Hawaii
- Size
- 3–18 cm
- Diet
- Molluscs, crabs and urchins, smashed open
- Lifespan
- 3–6 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The blow accelerates like a .22 bullet and shatters glass.
- 02
It has twelve to sixteen types of colour receptor; we have three.
- 03
It sees circularly polarised light, the only animal known to do so.
— What sets it apart
The punch is so fast that the water cannot get out of the way: between the limb and the target a bubble of vapour forms and collapses an instant later, and the collapse produces a second shock wave, a flash of light and a momentary temperature of thousands of degrees. The prey is struck twice, and the second blow lands even if the first missed. The eyes are equally extraordinary: sixteen classes of photoreceptor — we have three — not to distinguish more shades, as was long believed, but to recognise colours without comparing them, that is, faster. In aquariums, these animals have broken the glass.
