{{Short description|Species of crustacean}} {{Speciesbox | image = Monaco.Musée océanographique089.jpg | image_alt = | image_caption = | status = VU | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref>{{Cite iucn |title=''Palinurus elephas'' |first=Raquel |last=Goñi |date=2014 |article-number=e.T169975A1281221 }}</ref> | genus = Palinurus | species = elephas | authority = (Fabricius, 1787) | synonyms = *''Palinurus vulgaris'' <small>Latreille, 1803</small> | synonyms_ref = }}
'''''Palinurus elephas''''' is a commonly caught species of spiny lobster from the East Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Its common names include European spiny lobster,<ref name="Marlin">{{cite web |author1=A. Jackson |author2=C. Marshall |name-list-style=amp |date=January 29, 2007 |title=European spiny lobster, ''Palinurus elephas'': basic information |url=http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/Palinuruselephas.htm |publisher=Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme |access-date=February 3, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100902084849/http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/Palinuruselephas.htm |archive-date=September 2, 2010 }}</ref> crayfish or cray (in Ireland), crawfish (in England), common spiny lobster,<ref name="MLW">{{cite book |url=http://nlbif.eti.uva.nl/bis/lobsters.php?menuentry=soorten&id=142 |chapter=''Palinurus elephas'' |title=FAO Species Catalogue, Volume 13. Marine Lobsters of the World |author=Lipke B. Holthuis |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization |year=1991 |isbn=92-5-103027-8 |series=FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125 |author-link=Lipke Holthuis |pages=119–120 |access-date=2011-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515225942/http://wbd.etibioinformatics.nl/bis/lobsters.php?menuentry=soorten&id=142 |archive-date=2012-05-15 }}</ref> Mediterranean lobster<ref name="Malawi">{{cite web |title=''Palinurus elephas'' (Mediterranean lobster) |url=http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/palinurus_elephas.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011124121917/http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/palinurus_elephas.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=November 24, 2001 |work=Malawi Cichlid Homepage |access-date=June 3, 2011}}</ref> and red lobster.<ref>{{cite web |title=Exploitation models of the red lobster ''Palinurus elephas'' in the Mediterranean fisheries of Spain and Tunisia |url=http://www.faocopemed.org/old_copemed/en/activ/research/lobster.htm |date=May 31, 2005 |access-date=June 3, 2011 |work=FAO COPEMED |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928070856/http://www.faocopemed.org/old_copemed/en/activ/research/lobster.htm |archive-date=September 28, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |author=Driver, P. A. |year=1975 |title=The crawfish ''Palinurus elephas'', Fabr.; Its Biology and Fishery in British Waters |type=Ph.D. Thesis |publisher=Portsmouth Polytechnic }}</ref>
==Distribution and habitat== ''Palinurus elephas'' is a common species of spiny lobster, found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from southern Norway to Morocco and the Azores,<ref name = Seashore>{{cite book |author1=Peter Hayward, Tony Nelson-Smith |author2=Chris Shields |name-list-style=amp |title=Sea Shore of Britain and Europe |series=Collins Pocket Guides |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1996 |isbn=0-00-219955-6}}</ref> and in the Mediterranean Sea, except its eastern extremes.<ref name="MLW"/> It lives on rocky exposed coasts below the intertidal zone,<ref name="Marlin"/> mainly at depths of {{convert|20|to|70|m}}. It is named after the ancient Roman Tyrrhenian sea port of Palinurus (modern day Palinuro, Campania, Italy) where they are found in abundance off its promontory.
==Description== thumb ''P. elephas'' may reach up to {{cvt|60|cm}} long,<ref name="Marlin"/> although rarely longer than {{cvt|40|cm}},<ref name="MLW"/> and usually {{cvt|25|-|30|cm|0}}.<ref name = Handbook /> Few achieve their maximum weight of several kilograms.<ref name = Seashore />
The adults are reddish-brown with yellow spots. The carapace is slightly compressed and lacks lateral ridges. It is covered with forward pointing spines, with the supraorbital spines prominent. The antennae are very heavy and spiny, are tapering and even longer than the body. The first walking leg (''pereopod'') is provided with subchela (the distal end of a limb developed as a prehensile structure). The fourth segment (''merus'') of this leg has a characteristic row of spines.<ref name = Handbook>{{cite book |editor1=P. J. Hayward |editor2=J. S. Ryland |title=Handbook of the Marine Fauna of North-West Europe |pages=289–461 |author1=P. J. Hayward |author2=M. J. Isaac |author3=P. Makings |author4=J. Moyse |author5=E. Naylor |author6=G. Smaldon |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-19-854055-8 |chapter=Crustaceans (Phylum Crustacea) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZ8mdRT4jbIC&pg=PA430}}</ref>
==Reproduction== The breeding season is in September and October, with the female brooding the reddish eggs. These eggs hatch about six months later in the spring as flattened, leaf-shaped, planktonic larvae (''phyllosoma'' larvae).<ref name = Seashore /><ref name = Handbook /> ''P. elephas'' goes through ten phyllosoma stages and a puerulus stage before adulthood.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bouvier |first1=M. E.-L. |title=Recherches sur le développement post-embryonnaire de la langouste commune (''Palinurus vulgaris'') |journal=Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom |date=1914 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=179–193 |doi=10.1017/S0025315400007700|bibcode=1914JMBUK..10..179B |s2cid=85220945 |url=http://plymsea.ac.uk/335/1/Recherches_sir_le_developpement_post-embryonnaire_de_la_langouste_commune_%28Palinarus_vulgaris%29.pdf }}</ref>
==Diet== It is nocturnal and feeds on small worms, crabs or dead animals, hiding in rock crevices or caves during the day.<ref name="Malawi"/>
==Uses== It is a much sought-after delicacy and is widely caught for food around the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic coasts of Morocco, Portugal, Spain and southern France, mostly with lobster pots. It is also caught less intensively off the Atlantic Coasts of Britain and Ireland.<ref name="MLW"/> There are also small fisheries for this species on the west coast of Scotland, employing tangle nets or lobster pots. ''Palinurus elephas'' is the main ingredient of most lobster dishes around the Mediterranean shores, like the Menorcan ''caldereta de langosta'' (see lobster stew).
==References== {{Reflist|32em}}
==External links== {{Portal|Crustaceans}} *{{Commons category-inline|Palinurus elephas|''Palinurus elephas''}} * {{sealifephotos|107703}}
{{Edible crustaceans}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q8162866|from2=Q40570234}}
Category:Achelata of the Atlantic Ocean Category:Fauna of the Mediterranean Sea Category:Edible crustaceans Category:Commercial crustaceans Category:Crustaceans described in 1787 Category:Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Spiny lobsters