---
title: Sickle Mantis Shrimp (Gonodactylaceus falcatus)
scientific_name: Gonodactylaceus falcatus
common_name: Sickle Mantis Shrimp
taxon: Mantis shrimp
published: 2026-08-06T11:09:24.444Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:46.036Z
tags: Sickle Mantis Shrimp, Gonodactylaceus falcatus, Mantis shrimp, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/mantis-shrimp/sickle-mantis-shrimp
---

# Sickle Mantis Shrimp (*Gonodactylaceus falcatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Mantis shrimp (*Stomatopoda*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 0-15 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Cavities in dead coral and rubble
- **Hazard:** Dangerous

## How to recognise it

- mottled green to olive body
- club-shaped smashing claws, not spined blades
- peers out of a hole in dead coral by day
- length up to 10 cm

A stocky green to olive mantis shrimp of about 10 cm (4 in), one of the smashers: the second pair of legs ends in heavy calcified clubs rather than the spined blades of the spearing species. The strike is among the fastest movements in the animal kingdom, quick enough that the water behind the club briefly boils into a cavitation bubble whose collapse delivers a second blow of its own. Snails, hermit crabs and small bivalves are broken open this way.

It occupies cavities in dead coral and rubble from the shallows to about 15 m (50 ft), holding a hole against all comers and looking out with independently swivelling stalked eyes. Forsskål described it in 1775 from material collected on this coast, so it has carried its name since the earliest scientific work in the region. It has since traveled: carried to Hawaii with imported oysters in the 1940s, it spread across those reefs and displaced the native mantis shrimp, one of the better documented invasions by a crustacean. Fingers pushed into holes are how people get hurt by this animal, and the wound is a deep bruise or split rather than a nip.

## Also known as

- **English:** Philippine mantis shrimp, clubbing mantis shrimp
- **German:** Schlagender Fangschreckenkrebs
- **Japanese:** タケダフトユビシャコ, ハナレジマフトユビジャコ, フトユビシャコモドキ
- **Russian:** Серповидный рак-богомол
- **KO:** 혹다섯돌기갯가재

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cancer falcatus* Forskål, 1775
- *Gonodactylaceus gravieri* Manning, 1995
- *Gonodactylus aloha* Manning & Reaka, 1981
- *Gonodactylus chiragra var. mutatus* Lanchester, 1903
- *Gonodactylus falcatus* (Forskål, 1775)
- *Gonodactylus glaber var. rotundus* Borradaile, 1907
- *Gonodactylus insularis* Manning & Reaka, 1982
- *Gonodactylus mutatus* Lanchester, 1903
- *Gonodactylus siamensis* Manning & Reaka, 1981
- *Gonodactylus takedai* Moosa, 1989

## Range

Andaman, Bay of Bengal, Central Indian Ocean Islands, East Central Australian Shelf, Eastern Coral Triangle, Java Transitional, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, Marshall, Gilbert and Ellis Islands, New Caledonian Exclusive Economic Zone, Northeast Australian Shelf, Northern New Zealand, Northwest Australian Shelf, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, Sahul Shelf, Somali/Arabian, South China Sea, South Kuroshio, Sunda Shelf, Tropical Northwestern Pacific, Tropical Southwestern Pacific, Warm Temperate Northwest Pacific, West Central Australian Shelf, West and South Indian Shelf, Western Coral Triangle, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/mantis-shrimp/sickle-mantis-shrimp)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*