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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Ornate spiny lobster, Panulirus ornatus is also known as the Tropical rock lobster and the Ornate tropical rock lobster . They are among the largest of the Panuliris lobsters and are greatly favored as a delicacy. Being brightly coloured they are probably the best looking spiny lobsters.
Ornate spiny lobster grow to a maximum length of 50 centimeters (not including the long feelers) but most are smaller around the 30 to 40 cm range. The body is covered in a hard carapace with numerous forward pointing orange spines with two prominent forward facing spines between the eyes. The tail is covered in a segmented carapace allowing it to flex and provide powerful rearwards propulsion. The tail has a fan on the end with assists with propulsion when flared out.
As with all crustaceans they change carapaces and when the new one is ready they pull out of the old carapace. The new carapace takes a day or two to harden and they are extremely vulnerable to predators at this time. At night they come out to feed and can often be seen on the reef top. They usually stick close to cover and when threatened will use their powerful tail to jet them backwards to safety.
They are found in the sub tropical and tropical areas of the Indo west Pacific area from the South African coast up the east coast of Africa including Madagascar, across to Malaysia, Japan and the northern coast of Australia.