What we usually eat is crayfish, which is not really a lobster, its scientific name is Procambarus clarkii, it belongs to the crustacean (Arthropoda), Decapoda, crawfish (Cambaridae).
This freshwater shrimp is commonly known as Lagu in the north of China, and lobster, crayfish and freshwater lobster in the south. Crayfish are native to the south-central United States and northeastern Mexico, and were introduced to China through Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. Crayfish Astaxanthin, chitin and other substances extracted from shrimp shells can be widely used in food, medicine, papermaking and other fields, coupled with its delicious meat and rich nutrition, crayfish quickly "red" all over the country.
In recent years, with more and more being brought to the table, crayfish have now become an important economically farmed animal in the country.
Foodies may be aware of the value of crayfish, but this guy's scientific value is just as high. In foreign countries, the crayfish has become a typical experimental animal for studying fighting and social behavior. The gang is a true natural violent maniac, and as long as the other party exceeds the safe distance and appears in the line of sight, he will raise his double claws and pose as an attack. They establish a social hierarchy by fighting, and the socially hierarchical crayfish occupy more resources, such as mates, food, shelters, etc. Once the social hierarchy is established, the high-ranking crayfish will assume the posture of a victor, constantly approaching and attacking the opponent, while the low-status crayfish will assume the posture of a loser, and can only yield and retreat. But their sequence of social hierarchies is not static, and when there are invaders, a pair of crayfish that have established social hierarchies may change their dominant relationship.
Crayfish are super adaptable, whether it is lakes, rivers, ponds, ditches, paddy fields can survive, even in some fish difficult to survive in the water body can also survive; low oxygen tolerance, in some low pollution environment can also survive. Eat almost anything, from tender aquatic plants and fragments of higher plants to benthic animals, zooplankton, and even the carcasses of various fish and shrimp. When the shell is just molted, the crayfish will become soft and less active, and the hungry shrimp will take the opportunity to attack and eat the "soft shell shrimp".
Crayfish have become an extremely widely distributed invasive alien species in China
Crayfish also have the ability to escape the ground, like and are good at digging holes. Under natural conditions, caves provide the necessary protection against extreme environmental conditions and are an important resource for crayfish to compete with each other. Captive farming also usually places artificial caves to reduce fights between crayfish to reduce their mortality.
Violent crayfish also have juvenile feeding behavior. After hatching the larvae, the mother shrimp will protect her child from completing the growth and development of the larval stage. However, when the juvenile shrimp develop to a certain stage and can leave the mother to move freely, if the mother shrimp and the young shrimp are not separated in time, the mother shrimp will even eat her own child.
Where are the real lobsters?
The real lobster is the common name for 19 species of shrimp in the 4 genera of the arthropod phylum Crustacean crustacean (Palinuridae), and this "lobster" does not have large pincers like the protocellfish crustacean. But compared to the crayfish we eat more often, this type of marine lobster also has some characteristics in common: both belong to the decanter with 5 pairs of walking feet and 5 pairs of swimming feet; the blood is not red blood cells, which are blue; and the shell contains a large amount of astaxanthin, which is red when cooked.
According to the Records of the China Species Information Service CSIS, there are 10 species of such marine lobsters in China. The Chinese lobster (Panulirus stimpsoni) that we mainly eat is a unique and important economic species in China's sea area, distributed in the southeast sea area of China, inhabiting the coastal waters within 40 meters of depth under natural conditions, hidden in caves on rocky reefs, day and night, larger in size and larger in production.
In the East china sea and the south China Sea, there is also a kind of splendid lobster with beautiful multicolored patterns (Panulirus ornatus), which can reach up to 6 kg, but the output is not large.
Seafood lovers must know "Australian Dragon", that is, Australian lobster. However, due to the confusion of English translation names and different common names in different places, the names of various species have been confused, and it is impossible to verify which shrimp this common name refers to specifically. However, the "Aolong" often eaten can be simply distinguished from seawater and freshwater shrimp. A kind of seafood "Aolong" named red rock lobster or southhern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) in English, it is also a member of the true lobster family, its head and chest are cylindrical, the body is bright, it is mixed red before it is ripe, the nails are hard, spiny, two pairs of antennae are developed, the flesh is delicious, weighing several kilograms, and the price is enough to deter ordinary people. According to media reports, Endier, an amateur diver in Australia, once found a huge lobster in the waters of New South Wales, weighing 106 kilograms at a scale.
Freshwater "Austronic" usually refers to the Cherax quadricarinatus native to Australia, which belongs to the decapod family, the genus Crayfish, the genus Of Light-shelled shrimp, and is not a true member of the lobster family. The body color of this shrimp changes with the change of habitat, generally blue-green or brownish green, and its appearance resembles a lobster in seawater.
Red crawfish gets its name because the first pair of large crayfish of adult male shrimp have a soft, membranous bright red patch on the outside.
It should be noted that, like many other animals, in the artificial cultivation of these shrimps, people will breed some new varieties in order to pursue better taste or yield. Therefore, due to the problem of introducing species and breeding new varieties, whether it is crayfish or lobster, it is really difficult to accurately identify the true identity of the goods you eat on the table.