VulnerableCommon Spiny Lobster
Palinurus elephas
27 countries27 parks70 dive sites
Species group · Malacostracans
WAnimals has 4 species of spiny lobster, spread across 2 families (Palinuridae, Parastacidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
1 species in this group is in a threatened category according to the IUCN.
Recorded in 65 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Unlike the lobster it has no large claws: it defends itself with long spiny antennae.
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Its phyllosoma larval stage can last several months adrift in the ocean before it settles.
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The eggs are carried by the female, attached under her abdomen.
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Its life cycle runs through six phases across three different habitats, from the open ocean to the reef.
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It communicates by rasping a spine on its antennae against plates beneath its eyes to produce a creaking sound.
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It can lay up to 2,000,000 eggs in a single clutch.
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The fishery has been managed by the islanders themselves for more than a century, with closed seasons, minimum sizes and the compulsory return of egg-bearing females.
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It is endemic to a tiny archipelago in the middle of the Pacific, which makes it extremely vulnerable to any failure of management.
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