Largest slipper lobster

The world's largest species of slipper lobster is the Aesop or hunch-backed slipper lobster Scyllarides haanii, which can grow to 50.5 cm in total length, although it more commonly attains a length of 16–30 cm. Native to coral reefs and rocky bottoms in the Indo-Pacific region, it is found in the eastern and western Indian Ocean and throughout the Pacific Ocean, where it shelters out of sight during the day, emerging at night to feed upon bivalve molluscs. It migrates into deeper waters to breed during the summer, but during the winter and early spring it occurs more commonly in shallower, coastal waters. Slipper lobsters constitute an important taxonomic family of crustaceans containing approximately 90 species that are currently categorized in 22 genera.

Slipper lobsters are not true lobsters, differing from the latter by not possessing their characteristic claws (chelae), and are instead characterized by their very distinctive, enlarged antennae, which are wide and plate-like in shape.

They inhabit warm seas and oceans worldwide, and all species are edible.