lobster

A lobster fisherman in the town of Le Guilvinec-Lechiagat in Brittany, northeast France. Lobsters are traditionally caught by means of baited traps. Modern traps are made with plastic-coated steel rods and braided nylon net, as opposed to the more traditional baskets. Typical baits include mackerel and crab bodies.

Any of various large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are grouped with freshwater crayfish in the suborder Reptantia (‘walking’), although both lobsters and crayfish can also swim, using their fanlike tails. Lobsters have eyes on stalks and long antennae, and are mainly nocturnal. They scavenge and eat dead or dying fish. (Family Homaridae, order Decapoda.)

True lobsters are distinguished by having very large ‘claws’ or pincers on their first pair of legs, and smaller ones on their second and third pairs. Spiny lobsters (family Palinuridae) have no large pincers. They communicate by means of a serrated pad at the base of their antennae, the ‘sound’ being picked up by sensory nerves located on hairlike outgrowths on their fellow lobsters up to 60 m/180 ft away.

Species include the American lobster (Homarus americanus) and the Norwegian lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), a small orange species.