#common lobster

[critter-creature-or-beast]

This is a...

critter

creature

beast

Voting ended onSep 3, 2025

By Bart Braun - Own work, Public Domain

[best-bug-tourney]

Best Bug Tourney Round 1 Poll 51

which is the best bug?

Common lobster / European lobster (Homarus gammarus)

Horseshoe crab (Limulidae)

Voting ended onMay 1

Common lobster / European lobster propaganda:

none

Horseshoe crab propaganda:

They kinda look like some sort of hard-shelled bug and their legs are very bug-like. They look like silly chill flat guys :)

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Common Lobster (Homarus gammarus), St Abbs (St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve), Berwickshire, Scotland, UK, October 2011. 2020VISION Book Plate. Did you know? Crustaceans have blue blood, which unlike vertebrate blood relies on copper to carry oxygen.

Photographer: Linda Pitkin / 2020VISION

[oneanimalpictureaday]

European Lobster

Facts from Arran Coast: Contrary to popular belief their exoskeletons are normally blue, not red. The red colour from cooked lobster is due to the breaking down of a protein complex which normally suppresses the red pigment. There have been deliberate attempts to introduce this species to New Zealand, with 1 million larvae released from 1904-1914 in one unsuccessful attempt. Hybrids between Homarus gammarus and Homarus americanus have been created in laboratory conditions, but this is unlikely to happen in the wild as there is no overlap in species range. Even expert crustacean biologists find it difficult to distinguish this species from the american lobster Homarus americanus, which is worrying given that the latter could easily become invasive in the UK.

[pagurus]

Common lobster (Homarus gammarus)

Taxonomy: Animalia, Arthropoda, Crustacea, Malacostraca, Decapoda, Nephropidae, Homarus, H. gammarus

Description: H. gammarus is a typical lobster species, reaching lengths of 60 cm and weights of 5-6 kg. Their most prominent features are their claws, which are modified pereiopods. As with other crustaceans, H. gammarus displays handedness; there is a predisposition towards right handedness, with the left claw being a large crusher and the right claw being a longer, thinner cutter. This species is blue in coloration, with red antennae and claw tips.

Lifestyle: H. gammarus is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean sea, between 0-150m sea level. They live in holes and crevices, and are mostly nocturnal. These lobsters predate on other crustaceans, as well as polychaete worms and echinoderms. H. gammarus carries eggs for a year, which then hatch into planktonic larvae. The larvae eventually reach the seabed, forming extensive burrows. It is estimated that 1 in 20,000 larvae survive to the benthic phase.

They are one of the few habitats of the monophyletic phyla cycliophora, which are found on the lobsters’ mouthparts.

Photographs from ARKive, tristan15, and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

[karlayst-blog]

Kreeft (Homarus gammarus) by Arne Kuilman