AT food stalls, you can enjoy that favourite delicacy, chilli salt deep-fried mantis shrimp. In the sea, these creatures are predators of small crabs, shrimps and fish.
Living in burrows on the muddy sea bed, the mantis shrimp catches its prey with out-flung preying mantis-like claws. Prey within reach of the shrimp have little chance of escaping.
But there is one ''brave'' little shellfish, Pseudopythina subsinuata, which attaches to the ''chest'' or thorax of the bigger shrimp. In this position, the tiny creature enjoys a constant supply of water rich in oxygen and finely suspended food particles.
This kind of relationship is known as ''commensalism'', which literally means ''dining together''. The host is responsible for food gathering and the other takes a share. Although this is a one-way benefit, the host is not harmed.
Usually two to three of these tiny shellfish can eat with the host, the mantis shrimp.
Of these, one is usually female. After hatching the eggs, the female dies.