Have come across these creatures in reading and they are fascinating. Mantis shrimp, one of the dominant species of coral reefs, are included in this group. I haven't come across an explanation yet about why they are called "mantis," but that will come.

Anyway, there are many fascinating habits of these stomatopods:

They can recognize individuals within their species;
They have been shown to be monogamous;
Some can roll into a ball, thereby turning themselves into a wheel, and roll off a beach back into the water in order to save themselves if beached;
They are the only known creature to behave as wheels for locomotion, according the site I'll paste below;
And the mantis shrimp will use its ten legs to dig away at sand for a cave, its protective hiding place, and, even more amazing, will take its eight arms and form a basket or bucket with which to heave sand out of its cave.

If you don't know about the stomatopods, take a look at the url below.

Hey, tsuwm! Or Doctor Bill! What's the adjective for shrimp-like? (I don't think the mantis shrimp is a true strimp.)

http://blueboard.com/mantis/

And from the site above:

"These Crustaceans must be considered the champions of color vision, since their eyes have more than ten different classes of visual pigments."

Champions of color vision and I'm only hearing about them today. Been hiding under the wrong rock.

also from the site above..
strike of a large Californian species approaches that of a 22 caliber bullet, and is capable of breaking double layered safety glass. They are, weight for weight, probably the most formidable animals alive<EA>

this is why they are seldom kept in home aquariums!

of troy,

Cool fact there about their power.

wwh has suggested to me that the mantis shrimp name probably comes from their resemblance to the praying mantis.

Dear WW: I wondered if they resembled the praying mantis. I had been to the site, but didn't
see picture that suggested why the name was chosen
And nothing to explain about "mouth on foot" name.

>What's the adjective for shrimp-like?

stay tuned... meanwhile I give you squilloid, resembling the Squilla or mantis-shrimp. : )

What's the adjective for shrimp-like?

Scampy

Per favore, scampi.
scampi .,
pl. pi or 3pies 5It, pl. of scampo6
1 any of several large, greenish prawns, valued as food
2 a large shrimp broiled or fried with its tail on and served hot