Unique and Colorful Lobsters in the World

Lobsters are among the most favorite sea foods served in restaurants from all over the world. Lobsters came in different colors, shapes and appearances. Here’s a list of the coolest-looking and most colorful species of lobsters in the world.

Southern Rock Lobster

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Scientific name: Jasus edwardsii

Other common names: Red Rock Lobster and Spiny Rock Lobster

Range: Coastal waters of southern Australia and New Zealand

Maori name: Koura

Diet: Carnivorous – feeds on shellfish, crabs, fish and sea urchins

Habitat: reef with depths of up to 275 meters

Coloration: Dark red and orange above with paler yellowish abdomens or grey-green brown with the paler underside.

Size: can grow up to 23 cm long and can be more than 10 kg in weight

Western Rock Lobster

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Scientific name: Panulirus Cygnus

Range: Australia

Color: Brownish purple to a pale color.

Size: 10 cm in length and can weigh as much as 5.5 kg

Australian Crayfish

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Scientific name: Sagmariasus verreauxi

Other common names: Common Crayfish, Common Sydney Crayfish, Eastern Crayfish, Eastern Rock Lobster, Green Cray, Green Crayfish,  Green Lobster, Green Rock Lobster, Marine Crayfish, New South Wales Spiny Lobster, Packhorse Crayfish, Sea Crayfish, Smooth-tailed Crayfish and Sydney Crayfish

Maori name: Pawharu

Range: Lives around northern New Zealand, the Kermadec Islands, the Chatham Island and Australia from Queensland to Tanzania

Features: Probably the longest decapod crustacean in the world

Size: Grows up to 60 cm in length

Caribbean Spiny Lobster

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Scientific name: Panulirus argus

Other common names: Spiny Lobster, Bermuda Spiny Lobster, Common Spiny Lobster, Crawfish, Florida Spiny Lobster, West Indian Langouste and West Indian Spiny Lobster.

Range: Western Atlantic Ocean

Habitat: Lives on reefs and in mangrove swamps

Features: It has long, cylindrical bodies covered with spines.

Color: Generally olive greenish or brown but can be tan to mahogany with scattered yellowish to cream-colored spots on the carapace

Size: Can grow up to 60 cm in length

Mediterranean Slipper Lobster

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Scientific name: Scyllarides latus

Range: Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean

Feature: Edible and highly regarded as food but is now rare over much of its range due to overfishing.

Diet: Molluscs,

Size: Grows up to 30 cm long

Slipper Lobster – Ibacus novemdentatus

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Scientific name: Ibacus novemdentatus

Feature: An edibble and commercially important lobster species

Size: Grows up to 30 cm in length

Slipper Lobster – Parribacus antarcticus

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Scientific name: Parribacus antarcticus

Features: It can be kept as marine pet. It is edible and used as human food sources

Size: It reaches a length of up to 30 cm

Strange Blind Lobster

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Scientific name: Polycheles sculptus

Habitat: Deep waters with depths of 200 – 4000 meters

Range: Can be found on both sides of the Atlkantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, and across much of the Indo-West Pacific

Axius serratus

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Scientific name: Axius serratus

Range: Atlantic coast of Canada and the United States from Nova Scotia to Maryland

Feature: It is capable of living in areas which are so polluted that other benthic animals cannot survive.

See also

Amazingly Unique and Weird Lobsters

World’s Most Colorful Lobsters in their NaturalHabitat

 

10 Commercially Significant and Popular Edible Species of Crabs

Here’s a list of commonly known commercial species of crabs. These crabs are edible and commercially fish. These crabs are expensive seafoods.

1.) Red Frog Crab

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The Red Frog Crab is a unique-looking crab species. Its scientific name is Ranina ranina. The specimen on the above-photo was caught in Sasebo Seikai Pearl Sea Resort, Nagasaki, Japan. It is also commonly known as Spanner Crab. It can grow up to 15 cm in length and weigh as much as 900 grams. It is sold at a price of 400-500 pesos per kilogram in the Philippines.

2.) Bairdi Crab

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Bairdi Crab or Chionoecetes bairdi is a crab species that can be found in the Bering Sea. It is also commonly known as Tanner Crab. Commercially, it is called Snow Crab. It can live over a decade and can weigh as much as 1.8 kg.

3.) European Spider Crab

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The European Spider Crab or Maja squinado is a weird-looking migratory crab species found in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. They migrate during autumn with some crabs covering more than 160 km in eight months. This crab is the subject of commercial fishery, with over 5,000 tonnes caught annually. This edible crab is also known commonly as Spiny Spider Crab or Spinous Spider Crab.

4.) Japanese Spider Crab

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The Japanese Spider Crab is the world’s largest leg span of any arthropod reaching up to 3.8 meters and weighing up to19 kg. It can live up to 100 years and it feeds on shellfish and carcasses.

5.) Atlantic Rock Crab

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Atlantic Rock Crab or Cancer irroratus is a colorful crab species that can be found in the eastern coast of North America. This edible crab is fish commercially.

6.) Dungeness Crab

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The Dungeness Crab or Metacarcinus magister is a colorful species of crab that inhabits eelgrass beds and water bottoms on the west coast of North America. It can grow to 20 cm across the carapace. This popular sea food common name comes from the port of Dungeness, Washington in the US.

7.) Jonah Crab

The Jonah Crab or Cancer borealis is a commercially significant crab species that can be found on the Atlantic coast of North America. This crab with strong claws but not very aggressive has been fished on a small scale since the 1970s. Around 1,500 tonnes of Jonah Crabs are being caught annually.

8.) Red King Crab

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The Red King Crab or Paralithodes camtschaticus is probably the most popular and one of the largest commercially important crab species in the world. This crab, which is endemic to the Bering Sea, can attain a leg span of up to 1.8 meters. Red King Crab is heavily targeted by fisheries.

9.) Blue King Crab

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The Blue King Crab or Paralithodes platypus is another large crab species. It can be found near St. Matthew Island, the Diomede Islands and the Pribilof Islands in Alaska and along the coast of Russia and Japan. Blue King Crabs from the Pribilof Islands are the largest of all the king crabs. They can attain weight of up to 8.2 kg and are commercially harvested.

10.) Southern King Crab

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Southern King Crab or Lithodes santolla is a large king crab species found off the Pacific coast of South America where it is known as Centolla. It is a commercially significant crab species.

See also

• The World’s Most Colorful Crabs
• Freakiest and Weirdest Crabs in the World
• 20 Interesting Facts About the Japanese Spider Crab