Neogonodactylus bredini

Neogonodactylus bredini is usually light green in color, although it can range between reddish, darker green, and blue. Their walking legs are yellow or orange, and their dactyls are usually pink. Like other smashing type mantis shrimp, its raptorial claws have a blunt, swollen base for smashing hard-shelled prey. Males grow to about 70mm in size, females to 75mm. N. bredini can be distinguished from the similar Neogonodactylus lacunatus by a lack of channeled grooves along its carapace, which are observed in N. lacunatus.

Neogonodactylus bredini is native to tropical parts of the western Atlantic. It is found around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea around coastal areas, from the southern edge of the Bermudas and the Carolinas to the northern parts of Curaçao and Bon-Aire.

Neogonodactylus bredini is a generalist predator, preying on soft-bodied and hard-bodied animals opportunistically. It will eat worms, fish, shrimp, crabs, and whatever prey is readily available in its habitat. Like other smasher-type stomatopods, it hunts hard-shelled prey, like snails and crabs, by smashing them with the blunt edge of its raptorial claw. However, N. bredini will strike soft- and hard-bodied prey alike. It can travel up to 2 meters away from its cavity to hunt, going on upwards of 10 hunts a day and bringing prey back to its cavity to eat. N. bredini is capable of learning from its prey and will strategically target weak spots or seams on shells. If a single blow does not break a shell, an individual may experimentally strike a shell many times to test the effectiveness of specific strike locations. It will strike differently shaped shells in different places in order to break them open with the least effort.