New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Systematic status of the rock lobsters Jasus edwardsii from New Zealand and J. novaehollandiae from Australia

JOHN D. BOOTH

Fisheries Research Centre Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries P.O. Box 297, Wellington, New Zealand

ROBERT J. STREET

7 Gala Street, Dunedin, New Zealand

PETER J. SMITH

Fisheries Research Centre, Wellington

Abstract Rock lobsters of Jasus subgroup "lalandii" in New Zealand (Jasus edwardsii (Hutton, 1875)) and south-eastern Australia (J. novaehollandiae Holthuis, 1963) are biologically similar and gene flow is possible. The variation between Australian populations, and overlap with the New Zealand population, in morphology, colour, and biochemical genetics, and the agreement in life-history characters, make it impossible to distinguish animals from the two countries. The New Zealand and Australian populations of rock lobster should therefore be referred to as a single species, which by priority is /. edwardsii. The long-lived phyllosoma larval stage is widespread in the central and south Tasman Sea. Rates of any larval recruitment in New Zealand from animals spawned in Australia are likely to be variable because of variability in flow in the Tasman Sea, and because of the distance involved.

Keywords Jasus edwardsii; Jasus novaehollandiae; rock lobster; Palinuridae; New Zealand; Australia; gene flow; phyllosoma; electrophoresis; morphology; recruitment

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1990, Vol. 24:239-249 ; Crown copyright 1990
Received 26 August 1988; accepted 21 December 1989

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (828K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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