TWO PHYLLOSOME LARVAE OF PANULIRUS LAEVICAUDA (LATREILLE, 1817) (DECAPODA, PALINURIDAE) FROM THE CARIBBEAN SEA WITH A DISCUSSION ABOUT LARVAL GROUPS WITHIN THE GENUS BY JULIO A. BAISRE and MARÍA E. RUIZ DE QUEVEDO Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras, Miramar, La Habana, Cuba INTRODUCTION There are only four species of Panulirus in the tropical western Atlantic region: P. argus (Latreille) and P. guttatus (Latreille) ranging from Bermuda to Brazil and Barbados, respectively; P. laeaicauda recorded from southern Florida to Brazil and P. echinatus (Smith) confined to the northeast of Brazil and the mid-Atlantic islands (Holthuis, 1946, 1961, in litt.). For larval-ecological studies of the commercial species of spiny lobster it is very important not to confuse their larvae with those of closely related species. While P. argus larvae are well known (Crawford & De Smidt, 1922; Lebour, 1950; Lewis, 1951; Baisre, 1964) there are no published descriptions of larvae of the other three species although Robertson (1968) mentioned to have obtained larvae of P. t.at.us under laboratory conditions. In this paper we describe two phyllosomes from Panulirus, different from those of P. argus, which have been collected in the Caribbean Sea. Attempts to identify these larvae lead us to review previous descriptions of phyllosomes from Panulirus and two easily distinguishable larval groups were then established within this genus. Figures of the larvae were drawn with the aid of a Wild drawing tube attached to a binocular microscope and details of setation were drawn in by hand at higher magnifications. DESCRIPTION OF THE LARVAE Stage VIII? (figs. 1-5) Total length 11.2 mm. Cephalic shield 5.3 mm wide, broadly oval in outline, with the posterior margin obtuse (fig. 1). Thorax 5.4 mm wide. Anten- nae of about the same length as the eyestalks and larger than the antennule. Proportions of the antennular segments 2: 1 : 1 (fig. 2). Anterior branch (basis) of the maxillule with a vestigial palp indicated by two short setae and three strong distal spines (fig. 3). Maxillae bearing a setose exopodite. First max-