Hi Lydia!

Ok, to the question "what's the difference?'.

As far as my knowledge goes, in Spain when we refer to "langosta" we mean the large spiny type of lobster which DOESN´T have the large pincers which the word "lobster" is associated with. To talk about this type of lobster we say 'bogavante'. The langosta is lighter in colour and its shell, as it's English name indicates, is prickly. Lobster tends to be dark red/brown or blueish and smooth.

The spiny lobster is considered to have a more delicate taste and a more delicate texture, while many consider bogavante to be slightly 'rubbery', though its meaty claws are very appealing.

If you've ever been in a Spanish seafood restaurant, where they often display both kinds in tanks, you might have noticed that the 'langosta' tends to be bigger than the 'bogavante'. That would account for the fact that your text specifies 2 of the biggies or 4 of the 'littluns'. (This might owe to the fact that some are caught younger than others or simply that the lobster variety found in the East Atlantic doesn't grow so much, I don't know)

However, the decision in English is tricky and many names are controversial.

Some types of lobsters are often called crayfish or crawfish, but this only leads to confusion, since what is often translated as crawfish is a small freshwater crab, called "cangrejo de río" or "cangrejo americano" in Spain. Additionally, craw/crayfish is a familiar term in US-E but not so in BR-E.

IMO your best bet would be to say 2 spiny or 4 common lobsters. While the first might not be so well known (though I would expect a gourmet chef to have no doubts), the second is. Saying "common lobster" might help evoke the picture of an animal with claws, which is where the main (but not the only) difference lies as far as what we understand for lobster in English.


Good luck!

Álvaro :O) :O)

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Note added at 3 hrs 42 mins (2005-11-10 12:31:15 GMT)
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I found this reference which explains quite a bit, though it might seem a bit confusing until you read it all and get a full picture. I've extracted a small part which underlines the point I've just made, but you can read the whole thing to get the whole picture:

Nuestro mercado
En Galicia al igual que en otras comunidades, a la langosta espinosa la conocemos simplemente como langosta, a la langosta noruega como cigala y a la langosta verdadera como bogavante o lubrigante. A partir de ahora nos referiremos a la langosta propiamente dicha.

http://www.pedramol.com/mariscos/langosta.htm