🐙 Cell & Organismal Biology
Japanese Mantis Shrimp
The Japanese mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) is a spearing mantis shrimp of the shallow, muddy bottoms of East Asia, caught for food and eaten as a delicacy in Japan, where it is called shako.
The Japanese mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) is a spearing mantis shrimp of the shallow, muddy bottoms of East Asia, caught for food and eaten as a delicacy in Japan, where it is called shako.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Japanese Mantis Shrimp in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Ecdysozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Spearers in the Mud
The shrimp lives in burrows in soft sediment, using barbed raptorial limbs to snatch passing shrimps and small fish. Like the other mantis shrimps it strikes very fast.
On the Menu
It is boiled and served in sushi or other dishes. Its meat is sweet and requires care to peel because of the spines.
Stomatopod Relatives
See Spottail Mantis Shrimp for a Mediterranean spearer.
Japanese Mantis Shrimp at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Oratosquilla oratoria |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Crustacea |
| Class | Malacostraca |
| Order | Stomatopoda |
| Family | Squillidae |
| Field Guide group | Ecdysozoa: Mandibulata (Mandibulates) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Burrowing marine hunter up to 18 cm long with stalked compound eyes, a flattened segmented abdomen, and jackknife-like second thoracic limbs lined with sharp spines for spearing soft-bodied prey. |
| Order | Stomatopoda |
| Type | Spearer |
See Also
- Spottail Mantis Shrimp — a Mediterranean spearer
- Zebra Mantis Shrimp — a giant spearer
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