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Spiny Lobster

Panulirus versicolor

Description:

This Juvenile Lobster was spotted during a night dive. Panulirus versicolor is a species of spiny lobster that lives in tropical reefs. Other names include painted rock lobster, common rock lobster, bamboo lobster, blue lobster, and blue spiny lobster. P. versicolor grows up to 40 centimetres (16 in) long, but is typically no more than 30 cm (12 in). It has no claws, two spiny rostra over the eyes, and two pairs of large antennae, like all spiny lobsters. The first pair of antennae are double ended, the second hard and spiny, both are usually white. The carapace is white, pink and black, with horizontal bands and a reticule. The abdomen is green with transverse black and white bands. The legs are dark brown with white stripes and the tail is blue-green.

Habitat:

P. versicolor is nocturnal and solitary. In the daytime they hide in small caves and crevices in reefs or under corals. P. versicolor occurs in the shallow tropical waters of the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean. In the Indian Ocean it occurs from as far south on the east coast of Africa as Natal, up through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, in the Arabian Sea across to India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia, down through Indonesia to the waters of north-western Australia. In the western Pacific it occurs as far north as southern Japan, throughout Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and in the waters of north-eastern Australia.

Notes:

This Lobster is very popular among seafood lovers and fetches a high price especially at good Restaurants and Hotels.

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7 Comments

AlbertKang
AlbertKang 9 years ago

Thanks, @Joshua :)

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

Awesome!

AlbertKang
AlbertKang 9 years ago

Thanks, @Reza :)

Beauty !

AlbertKang
AlbertKang 9 years ago

Thanks, @Antonio for your kind comments.
Glad you enjoyed my underwater/marine life spottings :)

Another amazing spotting Albert,beautiful,congrats and thanks for sharing

AlbertKang
AlbertKang 9 years ago

Yes, @EnvUnlimited.
You do get lots of colors underwater when you have lights on.
It was still early night, some of the corals - the orange/brown things surrounding the Lobster has not opened up their polyps yet, which looks like flowers, otherwise, it would have been more colorful.

AlbertKang
Spotted by
AlbertKang

Maldives

Spotted on Nov 18, 2014
Submitted on Jan 13, 2015

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