Family PALINURIDAE Latreille, 1802

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Family PALINURIDAE Latreille, 1802

Compiler and date details

May 2012 - Peter Davie, Queensland Museum, Brisbane

Palinuridae Latreille, P.A. 1802. Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière des Crustacés et des Insectes. Ouvrage faisant suite à l’histoire naturelle générale et particulière, composée par Leclerc de Buffon, et rédigée par C.S. Sonnini, membre de plusieurs sociétés savantes. Familles naturelles des genres. Tome troisième. Paris : F. Dufart xii + 13–467 + [1] pp. [An "X" (title page = 1802)] [31] [as Palinurini; name, in corrected spelling, placed on Official List of Family Group Names in Zoology, see International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1958. Opinion 519. Addition to the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology of the names of twenty-three genera of Macrura Reptantia (Class Crustacea) and use of the Plenary Powers in regard to three matters concerned therewith. Opinions and Declarations rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 19: 133–168].
Secondary source:
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1958. Opinion 519. Addition to the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology of the names of twenty-three genera of Macrura Reptantia (Class Crustacea) and use of the Plenary Powers in regard to three matters concerned therewith. Opinions and Declarations rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 19: 133-168.
Synaxidae Spence Bate, C. 1881. On Synaxes, a new genus of Crustacea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, London 5 7: 220-228.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

Introduction

This family includes the most commercially important marine lobsters (or crayfish) in Australia. Six of the eight known world genera are found in Australian waters. The Western Rock Lobster (Panulirus cygnus) is principally caught in waters off southern Western Australia, and forms the basis of the largest single species fishery in Australia, with a value in excess of $AUS.200 million annually. The Southern Rock Lobster (Jasus edwardsi) and the Eastern Rock Lobster (Jasus verreauxi) are also significant economically, the latter attaining weights of up to 8 kg, making it the largest rock lobster in the world. Other tropical Spiny Lobsters (Panulirus species) are also very popular, but of less fisheries importance because they tend not to enter traps. Some deeper water species such as the Red Spear Lobster or Champagne Cray (Linuparus trigonus) and the Whip Lobster (Puerulus angulatus) are also found occasionally in the market-place, but are mostly an incidental or off-season fishery at present.

Important works for the identification and biology of Australian species include: George & Kensler (1970); George (1966, 1968, 1983); Phillips et al. (1980); Booth et al. (1990); Holthuis (1991); and Chan (1998). George & Main (1967) wrote an interesting account of the evolution of the Palinuridae.

Diagnosis

Moderate to large lobsters. Body tubular or slightly flattened dorsoventrally; setae, if present, few and scattered. Carapace subcylindrical or box-like, laterally rounded or straight; without a well-developed rostrum; ornamented with spines and granules of various sizes, sometimes with scale-like sculpture (Justitia). Eyes well developed, each protected by a strong, spinous frontal projection of the carapace (frontal horns). Antennae thick, very long, whip-like or spear-like; antennal scale absent; antennulae slender and each with two flagella which may be long or short. Bases of antennae often separated by a broad antennular plate, usually bearing some spines. In some genera a fleshy lobe is developed from the base of the antenna, and forms a stridulatory organ in conjunction with the smooth rim of the antennal plate; a low grating or sqeaking sound is produced by rubbing of the antenna. Pereiopods generally simple, non-chelate; first pair the same length, or only slightly longer than subsequent pairs (except in male Justitia longimanus), but often somewhat more robust. Abdomen and tailfan well developed, thickly muscled; posterior half of tailfan soft and flexible; abdominal somites either smooth or each provided with one or more transverse grooves. (After Chan 1998).