The caridoid escape reaction, also known as lobstering or tail-flipping, is an innate escape behavior in marine and freshwater eucarid crustaceans such as lobsters, krill, shrimp and crayfish.
The reaction, most extensively researched in crayfish, allows crustaceans to escape predators through rapid abdominal flexions that produce powerful thrusts that make the crustacean quickly swim backwards through the water and away from danger.[1] The type of response depends on the part of the crustacean stimulated, but this behavior is complex and is regulated both spatially and temporally through the interactions of several neurons.
- ^ Krasne, F. B.; Wine, J. J. (1987), "Evasion responses of the crayfish", Aims and Methods in Neuroethology: 10–45