PALINURA LATREILLE, 1802

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 128

INFRAORDER PALINURA LATREILLE, 1802

The spiny lobsters are entirely marine. Unlike lobsters of the Astacidea , they have a small rostrum, if any, and do not have heavy pincers. Spiny lobsters have a fragile planktonic larval stage, the phyllosoma. Only one species of one family is native to California and northwestern Mexico. Fitch (1962) reported Panulirus gracilis Streets, 1871 from a single specimen taken near the San Diego harbor breakwater, but there have been no subsequent reports of this species from the area.

De Grave et al. (2009), following a phylogenetic study by Scholtz & Richter (1995), changed the name of the Infraroder Palinura s.s. to the Achelata. I can see no benefit to changing such a familiar and long-used name. This latest system of classification of spiny lobsters does not include superfamilies.