Talk:Langostino

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How is this related to this critter? Squat_lobster If they are the same, shouldn't the article be merged?--208.65.192.1 02:35, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

The so-called "common names" of crustaceans are a real pain. They vary from place to place, from time to time, and depending on the context. A fabulous example is the link you provided at squat lobster [1], which includes the following phrases: "calling [it] a lobster", "Spanish for prawn", "actually a pelagic crab", "the European langostino is considered to be a lobster because it has small claws", "the jury is still out on the South American langostino", "We just call it langostino", "For me, it's more of a shrimp" and "In Italy, we call it scampi". Trying to work out what organisms are meant in each case is not easy. The "European langostino", "scampi" and "… more of a shrimp" probably all refer to the Norway lobster, which does not occur in Chile, so the South American langostino must be something else, quite possibly a squat lobster, although never mentioned as such. I think "pelagic crab" must just be wrong, and likewise "prawn". Squat lobsters are the only animals to which the FDA allows the name langostino to be applied, and are presumably the subject of the article, but without a scientific name, we really can't tell. With a scientific name, it's easy. The one thing I can be reasonably certain about is that none of these animals is Homarus, but there are lobsters other than Homarus, albeit ones which are less familiar to the general public. So to come back to your main point, langostino is used by different people for different things (the European langostino is not the same as the South American langostino, whatever that may be), and so is probably best as a sort of disambiguation, pointing out who uses the word for what. "Squat lobster" is thankfully unambiguous. --Stemonitis 07:25, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Aha, perhaps a breakthrough[2]: in South America, "langostino" seems to be used for Pleoticus muelleri, the "Argentine red shrimp" or "pink Argentine shrimp" (a prawn). That doesn't mean it isn't used for aynthing else, though. If I find time for a more thorough investigation, I'll try to include all this in the article. --Stemonitis 08:08, 4 October 2006 (UTC)