Forked antennules between the larger antennae; this allies the species with the tropical rock lobsters, rather than with the southern rock lobsters, which have antennules ending in fine filaments and a knob. The western rock lobster is the most valuable fishery species in Australia, with a total annual catch valued at more than $300 million. Juvenile rock lobsters drift for 9-11 months many hundreds of kilometres offshore among Indian Ocean plankton. They then move shoreward and settle in great abundance on shallow coastal reefs (0-20 m depth), where they forage at night among seaweeds and on adjacent seagrass habitats. Western rock lobsters migrate offshore into deeper water (30-150 m depth) at about five years of age and remain there for up to 20 years, spawning once or twice each year.

• Max Size: 20 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 18.5-23.3°C
• Depth: 0-180m
• Habitat: Rocky Reef, Seagrass

• IUCN Threat Status: Least Concern
• Occurrence: Common (49% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Few (3 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.