Africa, it is one of the less common species; the annual catch off Somalia is around 120 t. It is also caught in the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. Vietnam has lobster aquaculture based on the grow-out of wild caught juveniles. In Australia, hatchery technology is poised for commercialization. Taxonomic history Panulirus homarus was named Cancer homarus in Carl Linnaeus' Systema Naturae in 1758, the starting point for zoological nomenclature. The original description was simply "", with a type locality of . The lectotype is the animal portrayed in a watercolour published in 1705 in Georg Eberhard Rumphius' . The original specimen, which was in the collection of Henricus d'Acquet, the burgomaster of Delft has been lost, but the illustration survives, and is held in the in Amsterdam. Despite the vague location given by Linnaeus, the legend to the illustration makes it clear that the specimen was from Ambon, Indonesia. Henri Milne-Edwards' species Palinurus spinosus is probably a subjective synonym of P. homarus. His description could apply to any of P. homarus, P. interruptus and P. regius, but the colours he described most closely resemble those of P. homarus. References External links Achelata Edible crustaceans Commercial crustaceans Crustaceans described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus