Blue Spiny Lobster (Panulirus inflatus), El Arco, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Unlike other lobsters, spiny lobsters do not have large claws. However, they do possess hefty front walking claws, and a very long pair of antennae, which they rely on for defense.

For their defense spiny lobsters produce frictional vibrations by rubbing a plectrum at the base of their antennae against a file like surface on their body. This produces an extremely unpleasant sound that scares off predators, much like fingernails on a chalkboard to humans.

Theses lobsters are primarily nocturnal hunters, leaving their hiding spots at night and at dusk to prey on crabs, and other invertebrates. Most lobsters are intolerant of one another but are not known to feed on on other lobsters.

There are many species of spiny lobsters distributed all over the world from Asia to the Caribbean. We photographed this Blue spiny lobster during a dive near El Arco in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico