G. chiragra is a smasher, which means that the heel on their second pair of thoracic appendages is greatly enlarged, forming a club that is used to smash prey.

[8] G. chiragra are one of the largest smashers and employ a unique fighting strategy in which they circle around the target and aim at the head.

[10] Living underwater, this provides many benefits to them including increased contrast enhancement, ability to see polarization reflecting prey, and better navigation among the light-scattered ocean environment.

[11] Second is the presence of a midband, a large strip of specialized ommatidia (clusters of photoreceptor cells) that divides each eye equally into two segments.

[11] Although their eyes are incredibly complex among animals, G. chiragra are one of the few species of mantis shrimp that do not have polarized body markings.

[10] This offers them one less form of communication, and it is thought that evolution of deadly weapons (see "Claws" above) was preferred to body signals because of their restricted habitat.