About Panulirus cygnus George, 1962
This species, Panulirus cygnus, has five pairs of legs used for moving across the ocean floor. Females have claws on their fifth pair of legs, and six smaller pairs of appendages are located at the mouth. Its eyes sit at the ends of stalks. Body color ranges from brownish purple to pale shades. It has a segmented exoskeleton that is shed as the animal grows. The largest recorded specimen weighed 5.5 kilograms (12 lb), while a typical maximum weight is 5 kg (11 lb). The standard measurement for this species is carapace length, which ranges from 80 to 100 millimetres (3.1 to 3.9 in). This species is distributed along the coast of Western Australia, ranging from Hamelin Bay to North West Cape, and occurs at islands including the Houtman Abrolhos. Its larvae develop in Western Australia's seagrass meadows, then migrate out to deeper ocean and coral reefs such as the Abrolhos Islands.
