• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Subphylum: Crustacea
  • Class: Malacostraca
  • Subclass: Eumalacostraca
  • Superorder: Eucarida
  • Order: Decapoda
  • Suborder: Macrura Reptantia
  • Infraorder: Astacidea
  • Family: Nephropidae
  • Scientific name: Nephrops norvegicus
  • Norwegian: sjøkreps, rekekonge

Characteristics:

This is a relatively small lobster, not exceeding 25 cm, including the claws. The first three pair of legs have claws. The first pair of legs are elongated with spiny ridges. The shell of the head and body (thorax) is not segmented, while the tail is divided into six segments. The color is orange or red. The rostrum (the spine in its forehead) has as many as five spines on each side.

Habitat:

It may be encountered already at 15 meters depth, but is more frequent in deeper waters, between 30 and 800 meters. They live in shallow burrows in soft sediments.

Distribution:

It is registered in the East Atlantic Ocean, from Norway and Iceland to Morocco and the Mediterranean.