SnAP, CRACKLe

Muse, Jul/Aug 2005

Anyone who's ever knocked down a wasps' nest knows that wasps work together to defend their communal home. The undersea equivalent of the wasp is the snapping shrimp, a tiny shrimp with a single big claw that makes a sound when it snaps. Between 80 and 200 of the shrimp live together in the holes of a sponge.

The colony posts a lookout, and if an intruder approaches, the lookout starts to snap its claw. If it keeps snapping, the other shrimp inside the sponge start to snap as well. The whole sponge crackles, a scientist who studies the shrimp told the New York Times. Sheesh, a crackling sponge. That would make us tremble with fear. NOT.