Immaculately beautiful, cleared and dual stained mantis shrimp specimens, displayed in 150mm tall x 45mm diameter glass jars. These bits are actually from two seperate specimens that were treated together, but were substantially more damaged than the others hence I only salvaged them in parts.

If you’ve been following my work for a while you’ll know that of all the different creatures I’ve prepared over the years, that invertebrates have proven to be the most challenging to prepare consistently. But I think I’ve finally cracked the code with these incredible complex organisms!

When ordering, you can select the specimen you are interested in as they are as either the head or tail.

These specimens were sourced as food products from the frozen food isle of the supermarket, and come from a farmed colony rather than harvested from the wild. As they have been handled along the packaging and transport chain while frozen, no specimen is completely perfect as some will have the odd antennae, antennules, maxillipeds (the tiny feeding arms), or pereiopods (walking legs) broken or missing. Please zoom in on the images to see them in better detail.

While I generally prefer not to use specimens culled for food in my work (aside from occasional food waste), I made the decision to use commercially available invertebrate specimens as a means to refine my ability to prepare them better in the future.