Reef lobster
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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 reef lobsters, 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.
References
- Michèle de Saint Laurent (1988): Enoplometopoidea, nouvelle superfamille de Crustacés Décapodes Astacidea. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, t. 307, Série III, p. 59-62.
- Poupin, J (2003): Reef lobsters Enoplometopus A. Milne Edwards, 1862 from French Polynesia, with a brief revision of the genus (Crustacea, Decapoda, Enoplometopidae). Zoosystema 25(4): 643-664.
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