Coral cray

About this species

Panulirus penicillatus is a species of spiny lobster that lives on shallow rocky and coral reefs in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. Common names for this spiny lobster include variegated crayfish, tufted spiny lobster, spiny lobster, Socorro spiny lobster, red lobster, pronghorn spiny lobster, golden rock lobster, double spined rock lobster and coral cray. It has a very wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".

Text from the Wikipedia article “Panulirus penicillatus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 95 records
February: 78 records
March: 93 records
April: 232 records
May: 60 records
June: 168 records
July: 133 records
August: 88 records
September: 158 records
October: 82 records
November: 88 records
December: 132 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–121 m · Deepest record: 1,750 m

0–10 m: 36 records
10–20 m: 53 records
20–30 m: 0 records
30–40 m: 9 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 4 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 9 records
110+ m: 13 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–29 °C

22–24 °C: 601 records
24–26 °C: 119 records
26–28 °C: 15 records
28–30 °C: 29 records

Photos

(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) L. Miles Horne, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jacob Saucier, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) cello caruso-turiello, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jenni Ly, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Coral cray, Double spined rock lobster, Golden rock lobster, Pronghorn spiny lobster, Red lobster, Red spiny lobster, coral cray, double spined rock lobster, golden rock lobster, Penicillate Spiny Lobster, pronghorn spiny lobster, Pronghorn Spiny Lobster, red lobster, red spiny lobster, reef rock lobster, reef spiny crawfish, Socorro spiny lobster, spiny lobster, Taitung spiny lobster, tufted spiny lobster, variegated crayfish

Names in 9 more languages

German: Rifflanguste
Spanish: langosta de Isla socorro, Langosta de Revillagigedo, langosta horquilla, langosta roja
Filipino: banagan
French: grosses têtes, Grosse tête (La), Langouste fourchette (La), langouste fourchette, Langouste grosse-tête, vraie tangouste verte
Indonesian: udang barong
Japanese: shima ise-ebi, シマイセエビ
Korean: 가지뿔닭새우
Thai: kung king kong, kung mangkon, กุ้งมังกรคิงคอง
Simplified Chinese: 密毛龍蝦

Other scientific names: Astacus penicillatus, Cancer theresae, Palinurus Ehrenbergi, Palinurus Gigas, Palinurus penicillatus

Similar species

Australian spiny lobster
Panulirus cygnus
Banded spiny lobster
Panulirus marginatus
Coral crayfish
Panulirus ornatus
Marine crayfish
Panulirus versicolor
White-whiskered coral crayfish
Panulirus femoristriga
Scalloped spiny crawfish
Panulirus homarus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
12,050 open-data records from 1896 to 2023.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.