Last weekend I took a stroll along my favorite fishing beach to see whether the striped bass had come in yet (affirmative, but I did not get any keepers). On the way there I returned to the waves a couple of live male horseshoe crabs, some 20 spider crabs, and a mantis shrimp. This was a first for me. I’ve seen documentaries on the species, but always assumed they lived in exotic locales. Finding one, alive, washed up on a Cape Cod beach was exciting. The animal was some 10 inches long, pale and transparent in places, and had its claws retracted. I made sure to pick it up away from the impact zone, instinctively. That was probably a good move, since they seem to be aggressive little predators. I read somewhere on the internet that a Bahamian variety is locally known as a “toe-popper,” since it will split the toe of any careless wader wide open.
Cape Cod is probably the northern most range for the mantis shrimp, but apparently they have been found before – There is a nice post and pictures on Churbuck.com about the animal: http://www.churbuck.com/wordpress/2008/11/critter-from-the-bay-mantis-shrimp/
Apparently these animals are edible, but I would prefer not to see it perched on my shrimp cocktail glass…
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