Род Омаров: Биология и Распространение.

Genus of lobsters

Homarus is a genus of lobsters, which include the common and commercially significant species Homarus americanus (the American lobster) and Homarus gammarus (the European lobster). The Cape lobster, which was formerly in this genus as H. capensis, was moved in 1995 to the new genus Homarinus.

The two extant species of Homarus are both found in the North Atlantic Ocean. H. americanus is found from Labrador to North Carolina in the western North Atlantic, while H. gammarus is found from Arctic Norway to Morocco, including the British Isles and the Mediterranean Sea.

Mating in Homarus is complex and is accompanied by a number of courtship behaviours. Males build mating shelters or burrows, and larger males can attract more females, producing a polygynous mating system. A few days before moulting, a female will choose a mate, and will remain in his shelter until the moult. The male will then insert a spermatophore into the female's seminal vesicle, where it may be stored for several years. The eggs of Homarus species are laid in the autumn, being fertilised externally as they exit, and are carried by the female on her pleopods. The eggs generally hatch in the spring as a pre larva, which rapidly develops into the first larval phase. This is followed by three zoeal phases, the total duration of which can vary from two weeks to two months, depending on the temperature. At the following moult, the young animal becomes a post larva, with a gross form resembling the adult lobster. Although it can swim, using its pleopods, the post larva soon settles to the bottom and lives as a juvenile for 3–5 years. As adults, Homarus species moult increasingly infrequently. The size at sexual maturity varies with temperature; it is around for female H. americanus in southern New England, but around the Bay of Fundy. In H. gammarus, the size at sexual maturity is less well defined, but is in the range .