FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes Western

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982 Lobsters
Nephropidae NEPHROPIDAE
True lobsters and lobsterettes
Diagnostic characters: Moderate to
large-sized crustaceans. Body tubular,
surface almost naked or covered with thick
fur. Carapace (or “head”) with a well-developed
rostrum, ornamented with spines or
first 3 legs
nodules, occasionally smooth. Eyes usually with
well developed and black, or small and lack- pincers
ing pigmentation, or even absent. Antennae
very long and thread-like; antennal scale, if
present, with inner margin unarmed and
1
curved. First 3 pairs of legs forming true
pincers, with the first pair greatly enlarged
and long. Both abdomen and tail fan
well developed and powerful. Abdomen
smooth or variously sculptured, pleura ending
in acute ventral tooth. Tail fan entirely
hardened, telson with fixed spines and
posterior margin broadly convex. Colour:
with the typical coloration of deep-sea crustaceans
- from white to pink or red, some
species with special markings (usually red
and/or white) on body; setae or hairs, if present,
are light brown.
Habitat, biology, and fisheries: All species
are deep-sea forms and found at depths from
150 to more than 1 893 m. Their adult sizes
are ranging from 5 cm to over 40 cm. They
are bottom-dwellers with a preference for
soft substrate. Some species are known to
live in self-made burrows. The sexes are easily
distinguished by the position of the
gonopores, which are situated at the bases
of the third and fifth legs in the females and
males, respectively. In addition, the first
pleopods (“legs” of the abdomen) of males
are transformed into a strong and rigid penlike
copulatory organ while they are reduced and thread-like in females. The females bear large and
colourful eggs (white, blue or red, and other colours) on the ventral side of the abdomen. They seem to
have a long incubation period, but a short larval development. At present, none of the species of this family
is of significant commercial importance in the Western Central Pacific. However, the large size of several
species and the fact that some of them are commonly caught on the basis of exploratory trawling suggest
that they may have some commercial potential with the development of deep-sea fisheries. This is
especially the case with members of the genus Metanephrops, which are treated here in separate species
accounts.
st 1
rostrum
well
developed
pincer
enlarged
2
3
4
5
median
carina
pleura with
ventral tooth
tail fan hardened
gonopore
leg 3
leg 4
leg 5
male
sperm
receptacle
female
bases of last 3 legs in nephropids
gonopore
abdominal
sternite
copulatory
stylets
male female
first pleopods of nephropids
reduced,
thread-like