- Joined
- Mar 17, 2003
- Messages
- 662
I'm confused, where do all the extra hooks come from? I thought mantis only had two weapon arms.
Stomatopods have 5 pairs of maxillipeds (mouth appendages) The first pair are used primarily for cleaning and digging, the 2cd pair are greatly enlarged and are used to strike, and pair 3-5 have hooked dactyls and are used to grasp and manipulate objects The hectocotylus of the blue-ring is hooked by two of the posterior maxillipeds. The smashing dactyl heal of the right 2cd maxilliped (raptorial appendage) can be seen in the lower left corner of the image.I'm confused, where do all the extra hooks come from? I thought mantis only had two weapon arms.
I am more curious as to why these two animals were placed in the same tank? Mantis shrimp are known to be voracious predators and can often be quite aggressive and territorial! I wouldn't have predicted a great outcome with this combination...
Peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) and blue-rings (Hapalochlaena lunulata) are likely to encounter one another fairly frequently since both occur in the same habitat. We have some evidence that O. scyllarus can feed on H. lunulata and we would like to know how they deal with TTX. In this case a male H. lunulata was sacrificed by placing it in an aquarium with the O. scyllarus and the interaction recorded. The stomatopod immediately attacked and struck the octopus several times and seemed bothered by making contact with it, pausing frequently to clean its maxillipeds. However, it did not eat the blue-ring and it showed no ill effects of contacting it. Other O. scyllarus have occasionally consumed the blue-ring, but only after several striking it over the course of an hour or more
Roy