Distribution of palinurid and scyllarid lobsters in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

Ocean the need for compiling information on the distribution of the various species of adult lobsters recorded from the region was felt. Further, the increasing demand for lobster tails and consequent stepping up in the commercial exploitation of lobsters necessitate a study of the geographical distribution of the various species which constitute the fishery. Identifying phyllosoma larvae is an extremely difficult task. Two ways this could be achieved are by rearing them in the laboratory or by a process of elimination based on the knowledge of the geographical distribution of the adults. While identification by the latter procedure will still be provisional the former will give more precise data. Based on rearing work the authors (see Prasad and Tampi, 1957, 1959a and 1960) have already described the phyllosoma of four species viz., Thenus orientalis, Scyllarus sordidus, Panulirus ornatus and P. homarus (as P. burgeri). On account of great difficulties in rearing all the known species in the laboratory it was thought that the unknown types of larvae could be tentatively assigned to different species on the basis of the distribution of the adults. Therefore, data on the distribution of the species of adult palinurids and scyllarids recorded from the Indian Ocean region, at present lying scattered, have been brought together here.