Spiny lobster

Spiny lobsters, also called langustas, langoustes, or rock lobsters, are marine decapod crustaceans in the family Palinuridae. In Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and the Bahamas, they are often referred to as crayfish, sea crayfish, or crawfish (or "kreef" in South Africa), though these terms usually mean freshwater crayfish elsewhere.

Like true lobsters, spiny lobsters are part of the clade Reptantia. Furry lobsters (such as *Palinurellus*) were once placed in their own family, Synaxidae, but are now generally considered members of Palinuridae. Their closest relatives are slipper lobsters (Scyllaridae), and together these families form the group Achelata. Genera include *Palinurus* and several anagrams of that name, such as *Panulirus* and *Linuparus*. The name *Palinurus* comes from the Italian port of Palinuro, which harvested the European spiny lobster in ancient Roman times; the town itself was named after Palinurus, a helmsman in Virgil's *Æneid*. There are 12 recognized living genera, containing about 60 species.

Though they look somewhat like true lobsters, with a hard carapace and exoskeleton, the two groups are not closely related. Spiny lobsters are easily told apart by their very long, thick, spiny antennae, the lack of claws on the first four pairs of walking legs (though females of most species have a small claw on the fifth pair), and a specialized larval stage called the phyllosoma. True lobsters have much smaller antennae and claws on the first three leg pairs, with the first pair especially large. Spiny lobsters have a slightly compressed carapace without lateral ridges, and their antennae lack a scaphocerite (the flattened outer branch), which is instead fused to the epistome. The antenna's flagellum is stout, tapering, and very long. The walking legs end in claws.

Adult sizes range from a few centimeters to 30–40 cm (12–16 in). Rare individuals of *Panulirus argus* may reach 60 cm (24 in). Some reports of much larger lobsters exist but are questionable. For instance, a 1956 article in the New Caledonian newspaper *La France Australe* described a stuffed porcelain spiny lobster on display in Balande that measured 2 m (6 ft 7 in) including antennae and weighed 11 kg (24.3 lb). Another Australian publication claimed inhabitants of a small Coral Sea island caught a 2 m 10 cm, 17 kg (37.5 lb) porcelain spiny lobster. In the Loyalty Islands, a traveler named Gorsky caught 6–7 kg (13–15 lb) lobsters with locals, who also told a story of a man who drowned while fishing; his friend found him being eaten by a huge crayfish in a hollow, said to be as thick as a palm tree trunk. The locals believed the victim could not have drowned because he swam well, and no sharks were in the lagoon. This incident reportedly occurred around 1957. A study on feeding frequency found that increasing feedings from one to sixteen times daily improved growth and feed attraction, but more than sixteen feedings reduced intake and growth. Rapid leaching of feed made multiple feedings beneficial.

The fossil record was extended in 1995 with the discovery of a 110-million-year-old fossil near El Espiñal in Chiapas, Mexico. Named *Palinurus palaecosi* by researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, it is most similar to living *Palinurus* species off the coast of Africa.

Spiny lobsters inhabit almost all warm seas, including the Caribbean and Mediterranean, and are especially common in Australasia (where they are called crayfish or sea crayfish, *Jasus edwardsii*) and South Africa (*Jasus lalandii*). They live in crevices of rocks and coral reefs, venturing out at night to eat snails, clams, sea-hares, crabs, or sea urchins. They sometimes migrate in large groups, forming long single-file lines of more than 50 lobsters across the sea floor, navigating using smell and taste.