Clawed
lobsters compose a
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
(
Nephropidae, sometimes also
Homaridae) of large marine
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
s. Lobsters are economically important as
seafoodSeafood is any sea animal or plant that is served as food and eaten by humans. Seafoods include seawater animals, such as fish and shellfish...
, forming the basis of a global industry that nets
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
31.8 billion in trade annually.
Though several different groups of crustaceans are known as "lobsters," the clawed lobsters are most often associated with the name. They are also revered for their taste. Clawed lobsters are not closely related to
spiny lobsterSpiny lobsters, also known as langouste or rock lobsters are a family of about 45 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia...
s or
slipper lobsterSlipper lobsters are a family of achelate decapod crustaceans found in all warm oceans and seas. Despite their name, they are not true lobsters, but are more closely related to spiny lobsters and furry lobsters. Slipper lobsters are instantly recognisable by their enlarged antennae, which project...
s, which have no claws (
chelae), or
squat lobsterSquat lobsters are decapod crustaceans of the families Galatheidae and Chirostylidae, including the common genera Galathea and Munida. They are not lobsters at all, but are more closely related to porcelain crabs, hermit crabs and then, more distantly, true crabs. They are distributed worldwide...
s. The closest relatives of clawed lobsters are the
reef lobsterReef lobsters constitute a single genus of small lobsters that live on hard rocky bottoms in tropical parts of the world's oceans and Japanese waters. They are usually found between the depths of 80-300 m...
Enoplometopus and the three families of freshwater
crayfishCrayfish, crawfish, or crawdads — members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea — are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...
.
Biology
Lobsters are found in all the oceans of the world. They live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the
continental shelfThe continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and gulfs. The continental rise is below the...
. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks.
They are
invertebrateAn invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata ....
s, with a hard protective
exoskeletonAn exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal endoskeleton of, for example, a human. Some animals, such as the tortoise, have both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton...
. Like most
arthropodAn arthropod is an invertebrate that has an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed attachments called appendages. Arthropods are animals belonging to the Phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
s, lobsters must
moltEcdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in arthropods and related groups . Since the cuticula of these animals is also the skeletal support of the body and is inelastic, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed...
in order to grow, leaving them vulnerable during this time. During the molting process, several species may experience a change in color. Lobsters have 10 legs, with the front ones adapted to claws.
As arthropods, lobsters have not achieved the nervous system development of cephalopod molluscs, nor do they have the advantages of extraordinary eyesight. They do, however, exhibit three remarkable evolutionary advances that have led to their great success: an exoskeleton: a strong, lightweight, form-fitted external covering and support, striated muscle: a quick, strong, lightweight form of muscle that makes rapid movement and flight possible, and articulation: the ability to bend appendeges at specific points.
Lobsters typically eat live food, consisting of fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life. Occasionally, they will scavenge if necessary, and may resort to
cannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other humans.The word can be extended into zoology to mean any species consuming members of its own kind, and used outside of biological fields in a metaphorical sense: "Cannibalization" refers to the reuse of parts or ideas, such as...
in captivity; however, this has not been observed in the wild. Although lobster skin has been found in the stomachs of lobsters, this is because lobsters will eat their shed skin after
moltingEcdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in arthropods and related groups . Since the cuticula of these animals is also the skeletal support of the body and is inelastic, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed...
. Lobsters grow throughout their lives and it is not unusual for a lobster to live for more than 100 years. One such 100 year old lobster was donated to the Huntsman Marine Science Center in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. In fact, lobsters may exhibit
negligible senescenceNegligible senescence refers to a few select animals that do not display symptoms of aging. More specifically, negligibly senescent animals do not have measurable reductions in their reproductive capability with age, or measurable functional decline with age...
, in that they can effectively live indefinitely, barring injury, disease, capture, etc. They can thus reach impressive sizes. According to the
Guinness World RecordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognised...
, the largest lobster was caught in
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and weighed 20.15 kg (44.4 lb).
Although clawed lobsters, like most other arthropods, are largely bilaterally symmetrical, they often possess unequal, specialized claws, like the
king crabKing crabs, also called stone crabs, are a family of crab-like decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their flesh, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab .King crabs are generally believed to be...
. A freshly caught lobster will have a claw which is full and fleshy, not atrophied. The anatomy of the lobster includes the
cephalothoraxThe cephalothorax is an anatomical term used in arachnids and malacostracan crustaceans for the first major body section. The remainder of the body is the abdomen , which may also bear lateral appendages as well as the tail, if present...
which is the head fused with the
thoraxThe thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.In mammals, the thorax is the region of the body formed by the sternum, the thoracic vertebrae and the ribs. It extends from the neck to the diaphragm, and does not include the upper limbs. The heart and the...
, both of which are covered by the
carapaceA carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids as well as vertebrates such as chelonians, order Testudines, turtles and tortoises.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the carapace is a part of the exoskeleton...
, of
chitinChitin n is a long-chain polymer of a N-acetylglucosamine, a derivative of glucose, and is found in many places throughout the natural world. It is the main component of the cell walls of fungi, the exoskeletons of arthropods, such as crustaceans Chitin...
ous composition, and the abdomen. The lobster's head consists of
antennaeAntennae in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods and crustaceans. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in many cell types of eukaryotes....
, antennules,
mandiblesIn arthropods, the mandible is either of a pair of arthropod mouthparts used for biting, cutting and holding food. Mandibles are often simply referred to as jaws. The arthropods with mandibles form the clade Mandibulata, comprising the extant subphyla Myriapoda, Crustacea and Hexapoda...
, the first and second
maxillaeIn certain arthropods, the maxillae are paired mouthparts located behind the mandibles. While the mandibles are used for biting or cutting food, the maxillae are used for swallowing. Maxillae are found in all arthropods except for Chelicerata and the extinct trilobites, i. e. in myriapods,...
, and the first, second, and third maxillipeds. Because a lobster lives in a murky environment at the bottom of the ocean, its vision is poor and it mostly uses its antennae as sensors. Studies have shown that the lobster eye is formed with a reflective structure atop a convex retina. In contrast, most complex eyes use refractive ray concentrators (lenses) and a concave retina. The abdomen of the lobster includes
swimmeretsThe decapod crustacean, such as a crab, lobster, shrimp or prawn, is made up of nineteen body segments grouped into two main body parts, the cephalothorax and the abdomen. Each segment may possess one pair of appendages, although in various groups these may be reduced or missing...
and its tail is composed of uropods and the
telsonThe telson is the last division of the body of a crustacean. It is not considered a true segment because it does not arise in the embryo from teloblast areas as do real segments. It never carries any appendages, but a forked "tail" called the caudal furca is often present. Together with the...
.
Lobsters, like snails and spiders, have blue blood due to the presence of haemocyanin, which contains
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
. (In contrast, mammals and many other animals, have red blood due to the presence of haemoglobin, which contains
ironIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
.) Inside lobsters is a green goopy substance called
tomalleyTomalley or lobster paste is the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of lobsters, that fulfils the functions of both the liver and the pancreas. Tomalley corresponds to the hepatopancreas in other arthropods. It is considered a delicacy, and may be eaten alone but is often added to...
, which serves as the
hepatopancreasThe hepatopancreas is an organ of the digestive tract of arthropods, gastropods and fish. It provides the functions which in mammals are provided separately by the liver and pancreas....
, fulfilling the functions of both liver and pancreas.
In general, lobsters are 25 cm to 50 cm long ( 10 to 20 inches ) and move slowly by walking on the bottom of the sea floor. However, when they flee, they swim backwards quickly by curling and uncurling their
abdomenIn vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
. A speed of five
meters per secondMetre per second is an SI derived unit of both speed and velocity , defined by distance in metres divided by time in seconds....
(about 11 mph) has been recorded. This is known as the
caridoid escape reactionThe Caridoid Escape Reaction, also known as lobstering or tail-flipping, refers to an innate escape mechanism in marine and freshwater crustaceans such as lobsters, krill, shrimp and crayfish....
.
Symbion
The genus
SymbionSymbion is the name of a genus of aquatic animals, less than ½ mm wide, found living attached to the bodies of cold-water lobsters. They have sac-like bodies, and three distinctly different forms in different parts of their two-stage life-cycle...
, the only member of the animal phylum Cycliophora, is found on the
gillA gill is an anatomical structure found in many aquatic organisms. It is a respiration organ whose function is the extraction of oxygen from water and the excretion of carbon dioxide...
s and mouthparts of lobsters. To date it has only been found associated with lobsters.
Gastronomy
Lobster recipes include
Lobster NewbergLobster Newburg is an American seafood dish made from lobster, butter, cream, cognac, sherry, eggs and Cayenne pepper. The dish was invented by Ben Wenberg, a sea captain in the fruit trade. He demonstrated the dish at Delmonico’s Restaurant in New York City to the manager, Charles Delmonico, in 1876...
and
Lobster ThermidorLobster Thermidor is a French dish consisting of a creamy cheesy mixture of cooked lobster meat, egg yolks, and brandy or sherry, stuffed into a lobster shell, and optionally served with an oven-browned cheese crust...
. Lobsters are sold with claws banded to prevent them from injuring each other or people. Lobsters cannot open claws when banded, which causes the claws to
atrophyAtrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply to the target organ, disuse or lack of exercise or disease intrinsic to the tissue itself...
. Recently banded lobsters will not show this, and the claws will be full.
Lobsters may be prepared and cooked while alive (removing claws may not kill lobsters). Cooks place the live lobster in boiling water or steam. Lobsters are also served fried, grilled, or baked.
FreezingIn physical science, freezing or solidification is the process in which a liquid turns into a solid when cold enough. The freezing point is the temperature at which this happens. Melting, the process of turning a solid to a liquid, is almost the exact opposite of freezing...
the lobster may toughen the meat. A common misconception is that a lobster screams when boiled; this is due to steam escaping the shell, creating a whistling.
When boiling, the lobster is simmered for seven minutes for the first pound and three minutes for each additional pound.
The majority of the meat is in the tail and the two front claws, but smaller quantities are in the legs and
torsoTorso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies from which extend the neck and limbs. It is sometimes referred to as the trunk. The torso includes the thorax and abdomen.-Major organs:...
. Lobster is used variously, for example in soup,
bisqueBisque is a thick, creamy, highly-seasoned soup of French origin, classically of puréed crustaceans. It can be made from lobster, crab, shrimp or crayfish...
or lobster rolls. Lobster meat may be dipped in
clarified butterClarified butter is butter that has been rendered to separate the milk solids and water from the butterfat. Typically, it is produced by melting butter and allowing the different components to separate by density...
, resulting in a sweetened flavor. As with all
shellfishShellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
, lobster is not kosher.
History
The European wild lobster, including the royal blue lobster of
AudressellesAudresselles is a commune south of Cape Gris Nez in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.The commune covers about 2000 acres of cultivated lands, two beaches, and seashore cliffs...
, is more expensive and rare than the American lobster. It was consumed chiefly by the royal and aristocratic families of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. Such scenes were depicted in Dutch paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In North America, the American lobster did not become a popular food until the mid-19th century, when New Yorkers and Bostonians developed a taste; not until the invention of a special vessel, the lobster smack, did a commercial fishery flourish. Prior to this time, eating lobster was considered a mark of poverty or as a food for indentured servants or lower members of society in
MaineThe State of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the northernmost portion of...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
and the Canadian
MaritimesThe Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island....
. Into the 1950s, people in these regions would bury lobster shells rather than dispose of them in their rubbish to not be seen to be eating lobster.
Prior to the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
, dock workers in Boston went on strike, protesting having to eat lobster more than three times a week,
and servants specified in employment agreements that they would not eat lobster more than twice per week.
Lobsters were used as a fertilizer for farms. In Canada, outside of the rural outposts lobster was sold canned; New England's fresh lobster trade extended to Philadelphia.
The market for lobster changed with the transportation industry allowing live lobsters to be shipped from the ports to urban centres. Fresh lobster became a
luxuryIn economics, a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, in contrast to a "necessity good", for which demand is not related to income....
food and a tourist attraction for the Maritime provinces and an export to Europe and
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
where it is especially expensive.
The high price of lobster led to creating "faux lobster". It is often made from
pollockPollock is the common name used for either of the two species of marine fish in the Pollachius genus. Both P. pollachius and P. virens are commonly referred to as pollock. Other names for P...
or other
whitefishWhitefish is a fisheries term referring to several species of pelagic deep water fish with fins, particularly cod , whiting , and haddock , but also hake , pollock , or others.Unlike oily fish, white fish contain oils only in their liver,...
altered to look and taste similar to lobster. A few restaurants sell "
langostinoLangostino is a Spanish word with different meanings in different areas. In America, it is commonly used in the restaurant trade to refer to the meat of the squat lobster, which is neither a true lobster nor a prawn. It is more closely related to porcelain crabs and hermit crabs...
lobster". Langostino translates into
prawnPrawns are Decapods, belonging to the sub-order Dendrobranchiata . They are similar in appearance to shrimp, but can be distinguished by the gill structure which is branching in prawns , but is lamellar in shrimp...
; the actual animal may be crab. The spiny lobster is also called
langousteSpiny lobsters, also known as langouste or rock lobsters are a family of about 45 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia...
.
Catching
Lobsters are caught using baited, one-way traps with a color-coded marker buoy to mark cages. Lobster is fished in water between 1 and 500 fathoms, although some lobsters live at 2,000 fathoms. Cages are of plastic-coated galvanized steel or wood. A lobster fisher may tend between 10 and 2,000 traps. Around the year 2000, due to overfishing of some species and high demand lobster farming became more prevalent. As of 2008, no lobster farming operation has achieved commercial success.
Capacity for pain
Due to the ambiguous nature of
sufferingSuffering, or pain, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical, or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and frequency of...
, the issue of lobster pain may be approached using an argument by analogy — that lobsters are similar to human biology or that behavior warrants assumptions that lobsters can feel pain.
The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety tentatively concluded that "it is unlikely that [lobsters] can feel pain," though they note that "there is apparently a paucity of exact knowledge on sentience in crustaceans, and more research is needed." This conclusion is based on the lobster's simple nervous system. The report assumes that the violent reaction of lobsters to boiling water is a reflex to noxious stimuli.
However, review by the Scottish
animal rightsAnimal rights, also referred to as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans...
group Advocate for Animals released in the same year reported that "scientific evidence ... strongly suggests that there is a potential for [lobsters] to experience pain and suffering," primarily because lobsters (and other decapod crustaceans) "have opioid receptors and respond to opioids (analgesics such as morphine) in a similar way to vertebrates," indicating that lobsters' reaction to injury changes when painkillers are applied. The similarities in lobsters' and vertebrates' stress systems and behavioral responses to noxious stimuli were given as additional evidence for their capacity for pain.
A 2007 study at Queen's University, Belfast, suggested that crustaceans do feel pain. In the experiment, when the antennae of prawns were rubbed with sodium hydroxide or acetic acid, the animals showed increased grooming of the afflicted area and rubbed it more against the side of the tank. Moreover, this reaction was inhibited by a local anesthetic, even though control prawns treated with only anesthetic did not show reduced activity. Professor Robert Elwood, who headed the study, argues that sensing pain is crucial to prawn survival, because it encourages them to avoid damaging behaviors. Some scientists responded, saying the rubbing may reflect an attempt to clean the affected area.
In a subsequent 2009 study, Prof. Elwood and Mirjam Appel showed that hermit crabs make motivational tradeoffs between shocks and the quality of the shells they inhabit. In particular, as crabs are shocked more intensely, they become increasingly willing to leave their current shells for new shells, and they spend less time deciding whether to enter those new shells. Moreover, because the researchers did not offer the new shells until after the electrical stimulation had ended, the change in motivational behavior was the result of memory of the noxious event, not an immediate reflex.
Opioids
In vertebrates, endogenous
opioidAn opioid is a chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract...
s are neurochemicals that moderate pain by interacting with opiate receptors. Opioid peptides and opiate receptors occur naturally in crustaceans, and although The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety claims that “at present no certain conclusion can be drawn,” some have interpreted their presence as an indication that lobsters may be able to experience pain. The aforementioned Scottish paper holds that lobsters' opioids may "mediate pain in the same way" as in vertebrates.
MorphineMorphine is a highly potent opiate analgesic psychoactive drug, is the principal active ingredient in Papaver somniferum , is considered to be the prototypical opioid. Like other opioids, e.g...
, an analgesic, and
naloxoneNaloxone is a drug used to counter the effects of opioid overdose, for example heroin or morphine overdose. Naloxone is specifically used to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. Naloxone is also experimentally used in the treatment for CIPA;...
, an opioid receptor antagonist, may affect a related species of crustacean (
Chasmagnathus granulatus) in much the same way they affect vertebrates: injections of morphine into crabs produced a dose-dependent reduction of their defensive response to an electric shock. (However, the attenuated defensive response could originate from either the analgesic or sedative properties of morphine, or both) These findings have been replicated for other invertebrate species, but similar data is not yet available for lobsters.
Animal welfare issues
The most common way of killing a lobster is by placing it, live, in boiling water, or by splitting: severing the body in half, lengthwise.
The boiling method (also used to kill crabs, crayfish and shrimp) is controversial because some believe that the lobster suffers. The practice is illegal in some places, such as in
Reggio EmiliaReggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 167,013 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
, Italy, where offenders face fines of up to
€The euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
495. The Norwegian study states that the lobster may be de-sensitized by placing it in a salt solution 15 minutes before killing it.
In 2006, British inventor Simon Buckhaven invented the
CrustaStunThe Crustastun is a device manufactured by a company in England. It is designed to administer a lethal electric shock to shellfish before cooking, to avoid boiling a live shellfish, as they may be able to experience pain in a way similar to our own...
, which electrocutes lobsters with a 110 V
electric shockAn electric shock can occur upon contact of a human body with any source of voltage high enough to cause sufficient current through the muscles or hair. The minimum current a human can feel is thought to be about 1 milliampere ....
, killing them in five seconds. This ensures a quicker death for the lobster. Seafood wholesalers in Britain use a commercial version. A home version was released to the public in about 2006.
Lobsters in culture
The
Moche'The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru from about 100 A.D. to 800 A.D., during the Regional Development Epoch...
people of ancient
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
worshipped the sea and its animals. Lobsters were often depicted in their art.
Red LobsterRed Lobster is a U.S. chain of seafood restaurants. It also operates in Canada and Japan. It is aimed at the mid-level "casual dining" segment of the market. The menu includes a variety of specialty seafood and non-seafood entrees, appetizers, salads, and desserts.-Company growth and franchises:Red...
is a chain of seafood restaurants, founded in 1968.
Lobster (magazine)Lobster is a twice yearly British magazine focusing on parapolitics. The current issue, the last to appear in printed form, was published in June 2009.The magazine's philosophy is:...
is a twice yearly British magazine (June and December) focusing on
parapoliticsThe term parapolitics was first conceived and elaborated by Professor Raghavan Iyer of Oxford University in his work Parapolitics: Toward the City of Man. It goes beyond the confines of past and present modalities of encounter and embraces a richer view of the political than is found in the...
.
Lobsters dance a "Lobster Quadrille" in the eponymous chapter of
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer...
's famous book
Alice in Wonderland. It and the related lobster poems can be read
here:
"Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?" and
"Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare."
In an episode of
FriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolved around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by...
,
Phoebe BuffayPhoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character from the television series, Friends , portrayed by Lisa Kudrow, who won an Emmy Award, as well as receiving a Golden Globe nomination for her performances.-Early life:...
speaks about the ability of lobsters to mate for life, and claims that they hold claws (instead of holding hands). Later, she refers to Ross and Rachel as "lobsters."
Ebirah, is a fictional kaiju that first appeared in the Showa Godzilla film Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. Ebirah is considered one of Godzilla's weakest enemies.-Showa series:...
, from the movie
Godzilla vs. the Sea MonsterGodzilla vs. the Sea Monster, released in Japan as , is a 1966 kaiju/tokusatsu film directed by Jun Fukuda and written by Shinichi Sekizawa. The special effects were directed by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the seventh film in the original Godzilla series....
, was a giant lobster in
Toho'sis a Japanese film and theatre production/distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
stable of
kaijuis a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster." Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment....
.
List of clawed lobster species
This list contains all known species in the family Nephropidae:
- Acanthacaris caeca
Acanthacaris is a genus of lobsters and the only genus in the family Neophoberinae. They are relatively large lobsters with a cylindrical body covered with sharp spines . The carapace has a well-developed rostrum. The eyes are very small and lack pigment, while the antennae are long and whiplike....
- Acanthacaris tenuimana
Acanthacaris is a genus of lobsters and the only genus in the family Neophoberinae. They are relatively large lobsters with a cylindrical body covered with sharp spines . The carapace has a well-developed rostrum. The eyes are very small and lack pigment, while the antennae are long and whiplike....
- Eunephrops bairdii
Eunephrops bairdii is a species of marine lobster endemic to the Caribbean Sea. It is found off the coasts of Colombia and Panama at depths between 230 m and 360 m. It reaches a length of up to 20 cm , but is apparently too scarce for commercial exploitation ....
- Eunephrops cadenasi
- Eunephrops luckhursti
- Eunephrops manningi
- Homarinus capensis
The Cape lobster, Homarinus capensis, is a small lobster that lives off the coast of South Africa, between Cape Town and East London...
— Cape lobster
- Homarus americanus
The American lobster, Homarus americanus, is one species of lobster found on the Atlantic coast of North America. Within North America, it is also known as the northern lobster, Atlantic lobster or Maine lobster. It thrives in cold, shallow waters where there are many rocks and other places to hide...
— American lobster
- Homarus gammarus
The European lobster, Homarus gammarus, is a large European clawed lobster. It is difficult to distinguish from the American lobster — the best distinction is the geographical location, with the European lobster in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the American lobster in the western Atlantic, and by...
— European lobster
- Metanephrops andamanicus — Andaman lobster
- Metanephrops arafurensis
- Metanephrops armatus
Metanephrops is a genus of lobsters, commonly known as scampi. Important species for fishery include Metanephrops australiensis and Metanephrops challengeri...
- Metanephrops australiensis
Metanephrops australiensis, commonly known as Australian scampi, is a species of lobster. It is found off the north-west coast of Western Australia, ranging from the city of Eucla to Indonesia. It is prolific near Port Hedland ....
— Australian scampi
- Metanephrops binghami
Metanephrops binghami, the Caribbean lobster or Caribbean lobsterette, is a lobster which inhabits the western Atlantic region: from the Bahamas and southern Florida to French Guiana, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea ....
— Caribbean lobster
- Metanephrops boschmai
The bight lobster, Metanephrops boschmai, is a species of lobster endemic to Australia ....
— bight lobster
- Metanephrops challengeri
Metanephrops challengeri is a species of lobster that lives around the coasts of New Zealand at depths of between 250 m and 1,000 m...
— New Zealand scampi
- Metanephrops formosanus
- Metanephrops japonicus
Metanephrops japonicus is a species of lobster found in Japanese waters ....
— Japanese lobster
- Metanephrops mozambicus
- Metanephrops neptunus
- Metanephrops rubellus
- Metanephrops sagamiensis
- Metanephrops sibogae
- Metanephrops sinensis — China lobster
- Metanephrops thomsoni
- Metanephrops velutinus
- Nephropides caribaeus
- Nephrops norvegicus
The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, , is a slim, orange-pink lobster which grows up to 24 cm long . It is found in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean and North Sea as far north as Iceland and northern Norway, and south to Portugal...
— Norway lobster
- Nephropsis acanthura
- Nephropsis aculeata — Florida lobsterette
- Nephropsis agassizii
- Nephropsis atlantica
- Nephropsis carpenteri
- Nephropsis ensirostris
- Nephropsis hamadai
- Nephropsis holthuisii
- Nephrops macphersoni
- Nephropsis malhaensis
- Nephropsis neglecta
- Nephropsis occidentalis
- Nephropsis rosea
- Nephropsis serrata
- Nephropsis stewarti
- Nephropsis suhmi
- Nephropsis sulcata
- Thymopides grobovi
- Thymops birsteini
Thymops birsteini, the Patagonian lobsterette, is a species of lobster found around the coasts of South America, particularly the South Atlantic.-Distribution:...
- Thymopsis nilenta
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