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Homarus gammarus, known as the European lobster or common lobster, is a species of lobster from the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Black Sea. It is closely related to the American lobster, H. americanus. It may grow to a length of and a mass of , and bears a conspicuous pair of . In life, the lobsters are blue, only becoming "lobster red" on cooking. Mating occurs in the summer, producing eggs which are carried by the females for up to a year before hatching into larvae. Homarus gammarus is a highly esteemed food, and is widely lobster fishing using lobster trap, mostly around the British Isles.
The first pair of is armed with a large, asymmetrical pair of feet. The larger one is the "crusher", and has rounded nodules used for crushing prey; the other is the "cutter", which has sharp inner edges, and is used for holding or tearing the prey. Usually, the left claw is the crusher, and the right is the cutter.
The exoskeleton is generally blue above, with spots that coalesce, and yellow below. (1995). 9780198540557, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198540557 The red colour associated with lobsters only appears after cooking. This occurs because, in life, the red pigment astaxanthin is bound to a protein complex, but the complex is broken up by the heat of cooking, releasing the red pigment.
The closest relative of H. gammarus is the American lobster, Homarus americanus. The two species are very similar, and can be crossed artificially, although hybrids are unlikely to occur in the wild since their ranges do not overlap. The two species can be distinguished by a number of characteristics:
The eggs hatch at night, and the larvae swim to the water surface where they drift with the , preying on zooplankton. This stage involves three ecdysis and lasts for 15–35 days. After the third moult, the juvenile takes on a form closer to the adult, and adopts a Benthos. The juveniles are rarely seen in the wild, and are poorly known, although they are known to be capable of digging extensive . It is estimated that only 1 larva in every 20,000 survives to the benthic phase. When they reach a carapace length of , the juveniles leave their burrows and start their adult lives.
The species can be divided into four genetics distinct populations, one widespread population, and three which have diverged due to small effective population sizes, possibly due to adaptation to the local environment. The first of these is the population of lobsters from northern Norway, which have been referred to as the "midnight-sun lobster". The populations in the Mediterranean Sea are distinct from those in the Atlantic Ocean. The last distinct population is found in part of the Netherlands: samples from the Oosterschelde were distinct from those collected in the North Sea or English Channel.
Attempts have been made to introduce H. gammarus to New Zealand, alongside other European species such as the edible crab, Cancer pagurus. Between 1904 and 1914, one million lobster larvae were released from hatchery in Dunedin, but the species did not become established there. (2025). 9783540300229, Springer Verlag. ISBN 9783540300229
The diet of H. gammarus mostly consists of other benthic . These include , Mollusca, , starfish and polychaete.
The three clawed lobster species Homarus gammarus, American lobster and Nephrops norvegicus are hosts to the three known species of the animal phylum Cycliophora; the species on H. gammarus has not been described.
Homarus gammarus is susceptible to the disease gaffkaemia, caused by the bacterium Aerococcus viridans. Although it is frequently found in , the disease has only been seen in captive H. gammarus, where prior occupation of the tanks by H. americanus could not be ruled out.
Lobsters are mostly lobster fishing using lobster trap, although Handline fishing Fishing bait with octopus or cuttlefish sometimes succeed in tempting them out, to allow them to be caught in a net or by hand. In 2008, 4,386 t of H. gammarus were caught across Europe and North Africa, of which 3,462 t (79%) was caught in the British Isles (including the Channel Islands). The minimum landing size for H. gammarus is a carapace length of . To protect known breeding females, lobsters caught carrying eggs are to be notched on a uropod, the inner tail flap of female lobsters of reproductive size (usually above the minimum landing size 87mm carapace length). Following this, it is illegal for the female to be kept or sold, and is commonly referred to as a "v-notch". This notch remains for three molts of the lobster exoskeleton, providing harvest protection and continued breeding availability for 3–5 years.
Aquaculture systems for H. gammarus are under development, and production rates are still very low.
H. gammarus is the type species of the genus Homarus Weber, 1795, as determined by Direction 51 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Prior to that direction, confusion arose because the species had been referred to by several different names, including Astacus marinus Fabricius, 1775 and Homarus vulgaris H. Milne-Edwards, 1837, and also because Friedrich Weber's description of the genus had been overlooked until rediscovered by Mary J. Rathbun, rendering any prior assignments of type species (for Homarus H. Milne-Edwards, 1837) invalid for Homarus Weber, 1795.
The type specimen of Homarus gammarus was a lectotype selected by Lipke Holthuis in 1974. It came from , near Marstrand, Sweden ( northwest of Gothenburg), but both it and the have since been lost.
The common name for H. gammarus preferred by the Food and Agriculture Organization is "European lobster", but the species is also widely known as the "common lobster".
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