Metanephrops challengeri

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Metanephrops challengeri
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Pleocyemata
Infraorder: Astacidea
Superfamily: Nephropoidea
Family: Nephropidae
Genus: Metanephrops
Species: M. challengeri
Binomial name
Metanephrops challengeri
Balss, 1914

Metanephrops challengeri (the New Zealand lobster or New Zealand scampi) is a species of lobster that lives around the coasts of New Zealand at depths of between 250 m and 1,000 m. It is an important source of scampi, for which it is caught, since the late 1980s, by trawling.

Metanephrops challengeri builds a burrow in the sediment in which it may spend a high proportion of its time. It is thought that there are daily and seasonal cycles of emergence from burrows onto the sediment. In their early life they moult several times per year, and probably once per year after sexual maturity. They may live for at least 15 years.

Larval development is probably very short, possibly only less than three days.

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