White, 1847
Two distinct, widely separated tooth-like frontal horns, between which the anterior margin of the carapace is visible. Antennal flagella although large and firm, quite flexible. Flagella of antennulae long, whip-like, longer than peduncle of antennules. Antennular plate between bases of antennae broad, with dorsal spines; stridulating organ present. First pair of legs not enlarged, with no trace of a pincer, without coloured crossbands; carapace without a scale-like sculpturation; abdomen variously coloured, smooth or with at most 2 transverse grooves per somite.
Type Species: selected by Holthuis, 1956 (Bulletin of zoological Nomenclature, 12: 55): Palinurus japonicus Von Siebold, 1824.
A circumtropical genus of large, often brightly coloured, spiny lobsters. All of the 19 species known are to a greater or lesser extent of commercial interest. All are treated below