A new record of the spiny lobster, Panulirus femoristriga (von Martens, 1872) from the coastal waters of Malaysia, with revision of global distribution

Spiny lobsters of the family Palinuridae Latreille, 1802 are known to be industrial crustaceans in the global fishing market amongst other crustacean marine species. Panulirus femoristriga has been reported in the Maldives, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia (Ambon, Irian Jaya, Celebes Island, Seram Island), the Polynesian Islands, Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, Wallis and Futuna and off the coast of northern Australia, but there is uncertainty about their distributions due to the morphological similarity with Panulirus femoristriga, Panulirus longipes bispinosus and Panulirus brunneiflagellum. However, the identification on P. femoristiga can only be confirmed if the morphological descriptions are mentioned in literature.

A specimen of the spiny lobster Panulirus femoristriga Von Martens, 1872 was discovered in Semporna, located on the west coast of Sabah State, Malaysia Borneo. While the status of P. femoristriga has been classified as "least concern" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, studies on the species' population size, habitat and distribution are still inadequate. This study adopted both morphological and molecular approaches for species delimitation.The phylogenetic position of the Sabah P. femoristriga was revealed by the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase gene (COI) marker. This represents the first record of the species in the coastal waters of Sabah, despite its wide geographical distribution in the Indo-West Pacific. A revision on the species global distribution was also conducted by harvesting all literature with species named Panulirus longipes femoristriga and Panulirus femoristriga which were available online including those prior to year 2001 before the presence of P. femoristriga is confirmed. Due to the uncertainties on the morphological distribution in previous literature, further studies are required to fill in the missing data for confirmation.