In the tropical oceans of the South Pacific hides a predator that violently attacks its prey and pierces it with blades similar to those of a raptor. These animals are known to reach speeds so high that they can shatter aquarium glass. It is a crustacean commonly known as mantis, shrimp and belongs to the phylum Arthropoda and class Stomatopoda. All have an exoskeleton, meaning their body has no internal bones to support it. Other characteristics of arthropods are segmented bodies and bilateral symmetry. The exoskeleton is made up of chitin, lipids, carbohydrates and proteins. As arthropods, including mantis shrimp, grow, they produce a newer, softer exoskeleton underneath the old exoskeleton and this must be shed or moulted. The exoskeleton forms jointed appendages, such as antennae and legs, which allow movement and flexibility. Mantis shrimp are noted for their unusual method of breaking the shells of their bivalve mollusks with brief, powerful strikes of their rapacious appendages (Patek and Caldwell, 2005). Mantis shrimp belong to the subphylum Crustacea and the class Malacostraca. The Malacostracians have a tripartite body; head, thorax and abdomen and compound eyes pedunculated or sessile. Other characteristics of Malacostracians are a two-chambered stomach and a centralized nervous system. The eyes of the mantis shrimp are unique and are composed of three parts: a dorsal and ventral hemisphere separated by a central midband with three pseudopupils (Land, et al, 1990). Mantis shrimp are aggressive predators whose behavior is largely guided by vision (Caldwell and Dingle, 1976). Stomatopods are predators that hunt and kill animals. They attack and capture fish, molluscs and other crustaceans with...... middle of paper ......Montana. Contributions to Zoology, 67, 155-186.Land, M.F., Marshall, J.N., Brownless, D., and Cronin, T.W. (1990). Eye movements of the mantis shrimp Odontodactylus scyllarus (Crustacea: Stomatopoda). Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 167(2), 155-166. Motoyama, K., Suma, Y., Ishizaki, S., Nagashima, Y., Lu, Y., Ushio, H., and Shiomi, K. (2008). Identification of tropomyosins as major allergens in Antarctic krill and mantis shrimp and characteristics of their amino acid sequence. Marine Biotechnology, 10(6), 709-718. Patek, S.N. and Caldwell, R.L. (2005). Extreme impact and cavitation forces of a biological hammer: striking forces of the peacock mantis shrimp Odontodactylus scyllarus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 208(19), 3655-3664. Piper, R. (2007). Extraordinary animals: an encyclopedia of curious and unusual animals. Greenwood Publishing Group.