 The Cape lobster was first described by Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst in 1792 as Cancer ( Astacus ) capensis . It was independently described in 1793 by Johan Christian Fabricius as Astacus flavus , possibly based on the same type specimen . When Friedrich Weber erected the genus Homarus in 1795 , he included Fabricius ' species in it , but this placement was not followed by later authors . The species reached its current classification in 1995 , when the monotypic genus Homarinus was erected by Irv Kornfield , Austin B. Williams and Robert S. Steneck . 
