Characterization of Six Lobster Species of Genus Panulirus (Decapoda, Palinuridae) from Aceh Waters, Indonesia Based on Morphometric Analysis

Abstract

Aceh Province is a potential area for the exploitation of Panulirus, with six species of Panulirus inhabiting coastal areas and coral ecosystems in Aceh Province including P. homarus (Linnaeus, 1758), P. longipes (A. Milne Edwards, 1868), P. ornatus (Fabricius, 1798), P. penicillatus (Olivier, 1791), P. polyphagus (Herbst, 1793), and P. versicolor (Latreille, 1804). This study aims to characterise six species of Panulirus originating from Aceh as management and conservation efforts in the future. This research was conducted from 2022‒2023 at Simeulue Island (P. homarus, P. longipes, P. penicillatus, and P. versicolor) and Aceh Jaya Regency (P. ornatus and P. polyphagus), Aceh Province, Indonesia. The collected samples were then transported to the Aquaculture Integrated Laboratory, Almuslim University, Indonesia for further analysis. The collected lobsters were of mature size (body weight and total length reaching 500 g and 18‒25 cm) with a total of 10 individuals per species. A total of 58 morphometric characters were measured, of which total length (TL) was used as the coefficient of data transformation, so only 57 characters were subjected to statistical tests. Statistical analysis of the measured morphometric characters was performed using univariate ANOVA (analysis of variance) and multivariate DFA (discriminant function analysis) methods using SPSS Ver. 22. Univariate and multivariate morphometric analysis allowed the classification of six Panulirus species based on their specific characters. A total of 51 out of 57 morphometric characters were significantly different (P < 0.05), while only the six characters were not significantly different. Panulirus ornatus is the species with the highest species distance compared to the other five Panulirus species based on DFA analysis (scatter plot). Morphometric analysis to differentiate the six Panulirus species provides more comprehensive information on key morphological identification characters.