Figure 26. — Comparison of total weight and carapace length of the male 

 and female Pacific spiny lobster (P. gracilis). 



Caribbean Spiny Lobster ( Panulirus argus ) 



Because of the limited period devoted to work 

 on the Caribbean side of Panama not a great 

 many lobsters were collected. All data for 

 tabulation came from fishing in March and 

 April, and although some traps were set out 

 to a depth of 18 fathoms, all captured lobsters 

 came from traps that had been set close to 

 land, within a depth of 1 fathoms. 



The male-female ratio of the catch made 

 during this period showed that the sexes were 

 almost identical in number--360 male and 357 

 female. This was in contrast to the inshore 

 catch ratio of the Pacific spiny lobster which 

 was 62 percent male and 38 percent female. 

 And, as we also found in the other lobsters, 

 the meat yield was higher from the female (35 

 percent) than the male (32 percent). 



The increases of total weight and carapace 

 length of the male and female are shown in 

 figure 27. When compared with the graph of 

 the Pacific lobster (fig. 26) the early weight- 

 carapace length relations for both the Pacific 

 and Caribbean species appear to parallel one 

 another. The smallest egg-carrying female 

 captured had a carapace length of 2-3/4 inches 

 (6.9 cm.) and weighed 11 ounces. 



Length frequency and weight frequencies 

 (figs. 28 and 29) were constructed for males 

 and females. These show the predominant size 

 for the males to be 3-3/4 inches (9.5 cm.) 

 carapace length and the weight at that length 

 to be 25 ounces and for females 3-1/2 inches 

 (9.0 cm.) and 25 ounces. When comparing the 

 above data with those obtained for the Pacific 



lobster, some interesting differences are dis- 

 closed. Although the maximum sizes attained 

 for the two species are similar, the predomi- 

 nant size of the Caribbean lobster found off 

 Panama was larger than the Pacific lobster. 

 Also, the female Caribbean lobster was found 

 to be less evenly distributed throughout its 

 entire size range than the male. 



Of the 357 female Caribbean lobsters caught, 

 we have no data for 38. Of the remaining 319, 

 there were 204 (64 percent) gravid and 115 

 (35 percent) nongravid. 



CARAPACE LENGTH (CM I 



Figure 27. — Total weight and carapace length of the male 

 and female Caribbean spiny lobster (P. argus). 



23 



