Abstract
Presently there is considerable controversy surrounding larval recruitment processes of the Japanese spiny lobster Panulirus japonieus. This is based primarily on the lack on other than occasional phyllosomes in the neighbour-ing coastal waters north of the Kuroshio. Purposes of this review paper are to inquire the reasons why very few of phyllosomes of P, japonicus have been obtained in the Japanese waters, This paper includes discussions as follows: (1) possible identification of several local populations in P. japonieus by using biochemical genetic techniques, (2) ecology of phyllosomes and pueruli in palinurid lobsters, (3) problems concerning larval recruitment processes in Florida's (P. argus) and Japanese (P. japonieus) spiny lobsters, (4) the sub-tropical gyre in the western North Pacific and the geographic distribution of P. japonieus, (5) hypotheses con-cerning (a) how newly spawned phyllosomes of P. japonieus quickly enter the Kuroshio and Countercurrent and the middle to late stages phyllosomes are retained there, then (b) how migratory pueruli of P. japonieus recruit to the juveniles and adults in the shallow waters, and (6) possible causes of yearly fluctuations of puerulus abundance within traps set in the shallow waters and stock-recruitment relationships.
