mantis shrimp

mantis shrimp

noun
any stomatopod crustacean having a pair of appendages modified for grasping prey and resembling those of a mantis.
Also called mantis crab.


Origin:
1870–75
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Mantis shrimp is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Collins
World English Dictionary
mantis shrimp or mantis crab
 
n
See also squilla any of various burrowing marine shrimplike crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda that have a pair of large grasping appendages: subclass Malacostraca
 
mantis crab or mantis crab
 
n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

mantis shrimp

any member of the marine crustacean order Stomatopoda, especially members of the genus Squilla. Mantis shrimps are so called because the second pair of limbs are greatly enlarged and shaped like the large grasping forelimbs of the praying mantid, or mantis, an insect.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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