Ento-musings from the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Learn-On at Red Lobster

by Blake Newton, UK Extension Entomologist

I don't have much patience for chain restaurants, but Red Lobster is cool. For one thing, you can buy a live lobster there. In Lexington, Ky, this is absolutely the freshest seafood that you can get. Red Lobster: committed to fresh ingredients. My wife and I ate there the other night, and I realized that Red Lobster is committed to education as well. Using my wife's camera phone, I snapped this picture:



This is a photo of the fabric that lined the booth where we sat. As you can see, even the upholstery at Red Lobster is anatomically correct: the lobster has 4 antennae (2 pair) and 10 legs (5 pair). By the way, these are 2 of the characteristics which distinguish insects from crustaceans: insects always have 1 pair of antennae and 3 pairs of legs.

So the next time you are eating a live lobster, take a moment to study its anatomy while you're eating it. Get your learn on while you're taking its shell off. (There's meat at the base of the larger pair of antennae, by the way, especially on Florida Lobsters).

4 comments:

  1. Im almost as fascinated with crustaceans as with insects

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  2. I don't see any pleopods, and the abdominal segments are too generalized.

    Also, Florida lobsters aren't true lobsters: they're in a different infraorder.

    :P

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  3. A different infraorder? That must be why they taste better broiled instead of steamed.

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  4. I didn't know they were not true lobsters! thank you

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