How does the spottail mantis shrimp see?
The spottail mantis shrimp (Squilla mantis) is a crustacean in the order Stomatopoda. Its eyes belong to the vision type Crustacean (mantis shrimp, crab).
Measured in this species: sharpness. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.45 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 25 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[10][8]
- Activity pattern: nocturnal.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 1 receptor class: 507 nm (MWS (green)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Squilla empusa (same genus Squilla) | Estimated | [1][2][3] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.45 cycles per degree median of 1 compilation rows (method priority rule) | Measured | [4] |
| Angle between facets 1.6° median of 1 relatives in class Malacostraca: Phronima sedentaria | Group default | [5] | |
| Eye type compound eye | |||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | Activity pattern nocturnal group default: mode of tier-A values in vision type V27 within phylum Arthropoda (1 species: Ligia exotica) | Group default | [6] |
| Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) | Group default | [6] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 25 Hz median of 37 relatives in class Malacostraca: Pseudorchomene plebs, Booralana tricarinata, Eugonatonotus crassus, Eumunida picta, Gastroptychus spinifer, Funchalia villosa | Group default | [7][8][9] |
Other senses
- polarisation vision: optional overlay of degree/angle of linear polarisation (Group default)
- circular polarisation: optional overlay (Group default)
Related animals
- Peacock mantis shrimp same vision type
- Ciliated mantis shrimp same vision type
- Common banded mantis shrimp same vision type
- Blueleg mantis shrimp same vision type
- Japanese squillid mantis shrimp same vision type
- Keeled witch mantis same vision type
More crustaceans: all crustaceans with measured vision data.
Sources
- Porter ML. Crustacean photoreceptor lambda max compilation, Table 1-1 (dissertation, "Porter_2005" in VPOD); extracted from PDF by VPOD with tabula. github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db
- Feller K, Cronin T 2016. Spectral absorption of visual pigments in stomatopod larval photoreceptors. Journal of Comparative Physiology A. doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-1063-y
- VPOD in-vivo (MSP / single-cell) lambda max compendium, file scp_cleaned.csv, VPOD GitHub (Frazer et al. 2025 bioRxiv 10.1101/2025.08.22.671864). github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db/tree/main/scripts_n_notebooks/vpod_ML_workflows/mine_n_match/data_sources/lmax/vpod
- Feller KD, Sharkey CR, McDuffee-Altekruse A, Bracken-Grissom HD, Lord NP, Porter ML, Schweikert LE 2021. Surf and turf vision: patterns and predictors of visual acuity in compound eye evolution. Arthropod Structure & Development 60:101002. doi.org/10.1016/j.asd.2020.101002
- Bagheri Z, Jessop A, Partridge J et al. 2022. A new computational model illuminates the extraordinary eyes of Phronima. PLOS Computational Biology. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010545
- Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
- Haarlem CS, Hynes C, Jackson AL, Mitchell KJ, O'Connell RG, Healy K. 2026. Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom. Nature Ecology & Evolution (doi:10.1038/s41559-026-02994-7). Figshare dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?