''Linuparus meridionalis'' is a species of

spiny lobster Spiny lobsters, also known as langustas, langouste, or rock lobsters, are a family (Palinuridae) of about 60 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia. Spiny lobsters are also, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, S ...

in the genus ''

Linuparus ''Linuparus'', the spear lobsters, is a genus of medium-sized to large spiny lobsters in the family Palinuridae. It contains four extant species found at depths of in the Indo-Pacific, and 32 fossil species, ranging from the Early Cretaceous to ...

''. It lives on the sea floor around Australia, New Caledonia and parts of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, at depths of . Formerly considered part of '' L. trigonus'', it was recognised as a separate species in 2011, based on variation in colouration, and subtle morphological differences.

Distribution and ecology

''Linuparus meridionalis'' is found in at depths of around the northern and eastern coasts of Australia, off New Caledonia, and among the

Tanimbar Islands The Tanimbar Islands, also called ''Timur Laut'', are a group of about 65 islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The largest and most central of the islands is Yamdena; others include Selaru to the southwest of Yamdena, Larat and Ford ...

. ''L. meridionalis'' is benthic (lives on the sea floor), and feeds on various

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. Females may carry eggs at any time from February to October.

Description

''Linuparus meridionalis'' males grow to a

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the und ...

length of , with females only slightly smaller, at . The body is "generally half brownish red and half white". The second to fifth

somite The somites (outdated term: primitive segments) are a set of bilaterally paired blocks of paraxial mesoderm that form in the embryonic stage of somitogenesis, along the head-to-tail axis in segmented animals. In vertebrates, somites subdivide i ...

s of the abdomen are generally white, at least in the posterior half.

Taxonomy

Until 2011, ''L. meridionalis'' was considered part of '' L. trigonus''. Doubts were expressed as early as 1967 that the two populations belonged to the same species, but no convincing character could be found to separate them. In 2011, it was formally described as a separate species by scientists from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, and was given the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

', meaning "southern", since the new species occurs only in the Southern Hemisphere. ''L. meridionalis'' is separated from ''L. trigonus'' by the pattern of colours on the body, and by subtle differences in the shape of the

sternum The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. ...

. The other two extant species of ''Linuparus'' are less closely related.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16754432 Achelata Crustaceans described in 2011