Gonodactylus
Premium Member
The animal pictured in this story was not a mutant and it wasn't even that large for the species. The animal shown was a 13 inch female Lysiosquillina maculata, a large spearer found throughout the Indo-Pacific from the East Coast of Africa to the Galapagos. I currently have a preserved specimen sitting on my desk from Oahu that is about 15 inches and there are reports of this species getting up to 16 inches. The last time I was in Hawaii I saw several burrows in Kaneohe Bay of animals that were probably in the 13 - 14 inch size range. This is nothing new or unusual. L. m often live in stinking mangrove mud, so this does not surprise me.
A bit of biology on this species. They are long-lived, probably over 20 years. Adults occur in monogamous pairs and are sexually dimorphic with the males having larger raptorial appendages and eyes and doing almost all of the hunting. Males feed their mates. They feed primarily on fish and a large male can easily catch and subdue an 8 inch goat fish. The burrows of these animals are usually u-shaped. The burrow of a large animal can be about 4-5 inches in diameter and several feet long, Rarely are females caught because they stay in their burrows. .
I currently have several in my lab and we don't worry about them breaking glass. As spearers, they don't pack much of a wallop - although a large animal can reach out about 8 inghes. They can, however, be dangerous. I once saw a snorkeller in Kaneohe Bay with over a dozen punctures in his thigh from a L. m. that struck him as he swam over its burrow. The worst stomatopod wound I ever suffered was from a 15 inch L. m. that I caught on Lizard Island. I was working with it in the lab and picked it up very carefully avoiding the raptorial appendages. What I forgot was the uropod spines on the tail. They are razor sharp. The animal jack-knifed, brought its tail up to his head and in the process caught me in the finger. The spine entered my index finger at the base of the nail and made a clean slice all the way to the second knuckle. It was so clean and quick, I hardly felt it until the blood started squirting in all directions. Moral - these things are dangerous on either end.
Roy
p.s. That guy and his mate are now in the Australian National Museum.
A bit of biology on this species. They are long-lived, probably over 20 years. Adults occur in monogamous pairs and are sexually dimorphic with the males having larger raptorial appendages and eyes and doing almost all of the hunting. Males feed their mates. They feed primarily on fish and a large male can easily catch and subdue an 8 inch goat fish. The burrows of these animals are usually u-shaped. The burrow of a large animal can be about 4-5 inches in diameter and several feet long, Rarely are females caught because they stay in their burrows. .
I currently have several in my lab and we don't worry about them breaking glass. As spearers, they don't pack much of a wallop - although a large animal can reach out about 8 inghes. They can, however, be dangerous. I once saw a snorkeller in Kaneohe Bay with over a dozen punctures in his thigh from a L. m. that struck him as he swam over its burrow. The worst stomatopod wound I ever suffered was from a 15 inch L. m. that I caught on Lizard Island. I was working with it in the lab and picked it up very carefully avoiding the raptorial appendages. What I forgot was the uropod spines on the tail. They are razor sharp. The animal jack-knifed, brought its tail up to his head and in the process caught me in the finger. The spine entered my index finger at the base of the nail and made a clean slice all the way to the second knuckle. It was so clean and quick, I hardly felt it until the blood started squirting in all directions. Moral - these things are dangerous on either end.
Roy
p.s. That guy and his mate are now in the Australian National Museum.
