Individual based, spatially explicit models to explore the mating systems of the red rock lobster Jasus edwardsii and the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus

Field and laboratory experiments have been undertaken over the last decade investigating various aspects of the mating system of the red or southern rock lobster Jasus edwardsii (Fig. 1) and the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus (briefly reported in earlier editions of the Lobster Newsletter: Vol. 8 No. 2, December 1995; Vol 12, No. 1, June 1999; Vol. 18 No. 1, February 2005). We have now constructed separate, but similar models describing the mating systems of these two species.