Reef
Lobster
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Astacidea
Superfamily: Enoplometopoidea
Reef lobsters (genus Enoplometopus) constitute a single
family of small lobsters that live on coral reefs in tropical
parts of the world's oceans. They are generally brightly
coloured, with stripes or spots in shades of red, orange
and pink; as a result, some species are gaining popularity
in the aquarium trade.
Reef lobsters are distinguished from clawed lobsters (family
Nephropidae) by having full claws (chelae) only on the
first pair of pereiopods, the second and third pairs being
only semi-chelate (where the last segment of the appendage
can press against a short projection from the penultimate
one). Males, unlike those of nephropoid lobsters, have
an extra lobe on the second pleopod, which is assumed
to have some function in reproduction.
Although there is no fossil record of reeflobsters, there
is some evidence that they may be related to, or descended
from, the extinct family Erymidae which lived from the
late Triassic to the mid-Cretaceous.
See also
• Crustacean
• Lobster
• Spiny
Lobster
• How
to Boil Lobster
• How
to Eat Lobster
• Live
Maine Lobsters
Recipes:
• Baked
Stuffed Lobster
• Seafood
Stuffed Lobster
Other:
• Blue
Lobsters are Real
This article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Reef Lobster".
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