About Lobsters (family Nephropidae)

Lobsters are decapods, decapods are crustaceans, and crustaceans are arthropods. Arthropods are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Lobsters match that description.

After molting, lobsters plump up their bodies with water while growing their next rigid, hard-shell exoskeleton. That gives them a little room to grow in before needing to molt again.

There are up to 10 million species of arthropods. Crustaceans are a subgroup among arthropods. One of their characteristics is that their limbs are two-parted. 67,000 species of crustaceans have been described. A subgroup among crustaceans, decapods, can have as many as 38 appendages, ten of which are considered to be legs. There are about 15,000 decapods, not including 3,300 fossil species. Included among decapods are groups like prawns, shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. There are 35 species of lobster in the world's oceans. Roughly half of them, called cold-water lobsters, have large claws.

he rest of them, commonly called spiny or rock lobsters, do not have large claws on their forelimbs.

The lobster images above are pretty well known, but not all lobster species match those appearances. The Japanese fan lobster (Ibacus ciliatus), a cousin of Nephropidae, appears somewhat different. Here is a top view.

Lobsters are survivors as long as they are not injured or eaten. They can regenerate limbs many times over their lifetime. Uninterrupted, they continue to molt and grow, molt and grow, molt and grow indefinitely. They do not show signs of aging as they grow older and larger. They even increase in fertility as they age. Some think lobsters can become as much 100 years old, but there is no way to tell how old a lobster is without watching it continuously from birth.

Lobsters can grow to considerable size. The record weight is 44.3 pounds. Its length wasn't recorded. The one in the photo below was a 23-pound male.

Artwork

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849)

Hokusai is famous for his ukiyo-e landscapes, but he did many non-woodblock paintings, too, including many kachō-ga (pictures of birds and animals). Kachō-ga usually combine two subjects in compositions, but the lobster below does well without accompaniment.

Totoya Hokkei (1780 – 1850)

Hokkei initially studied with a Kanō school master before becoming one of Hokusai's earliest students. He produced many ukiyo-e in a variety of styles. His Lobster on a Piece of Charcoal is one of them.

Utagawa Kunisada (1786 – 1865)

Little is known of Kunisada's life other than that he was born of a humble family. As an artist, he produced many ukiyo-e with a variety of subjects, but he is best known for his bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people). He was the most commercially successful artist of Japan's 19th century. The triptych below, titled Phoenix Costume and Lobster Robe, features a scene from the kabuki play, Mukashi Banashi Sansho Dayu. The levitating phoenix is on the far left. The actor in the center is wearing the lobster robe. Look closely at the designs on the robe.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858)

Like Hokusai, Hiroshige is best known for his ukiyo-e landscapes, but he painted many other subjects, too. The ukiyo-e below is titled Lobster, Prawn, and Shrimps.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798 – 1861)

Kuniyoshi was one of the last great ukiyo-e masters of the Edo period. He painted a wide range of subjects, incorporating elements of western perspective in his paintings. Like Kunisada's kabuki triptych above, this painting of Kuniyoshi's features a lobster and a phoenix. This time, however, it is not a scene from a play.

Kubota Beisen (1852 – 1906)

Beisen was sent to the U.S. by a newspaper he was an illustrator for to see the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago where he taught himself how to incorporate western perspective into Japanese art. His illustrations of the fair were collected into a book. He was later embedded with the Japanese army during the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-5). Eleven volumes of his paintings documenting events of the war were published. He was given several awards for his work. The painting below of a lobster with a yuzu (a hybrid between mandarin and papeda) was painted in 1901.