18 ABOUT LOBSTERS 



ster in a tank is immediately aware of a hand approach- * * 

 ing him. 



Lobsters certainly shun light, as is evident in lobster 

 tanks where the lobsters will shrink away from light, and 

 huddle together in the darkest corner. 



Experiments with lights for lobster lures have met with 

 little success, confirming the belief that lobsters shun even 

 the dimmest light. 



Lobster eyes seem to be affected by agitation. One * * 

 lobster dealer whose statements are dependable has no- 

 ticed the color of a lobster's eyes during a storm. He 

 keeps his lobsters in crates in the water, and the crates 

 are naturally tossed around in a storm. At such times, 

 the eyes of the lobsters turn so ruby red that they are 

 clearly noticeable. 



Taste and smell. Lobsters have no taste or smell organs 

 in the usual meaning of the words, and it seems probable 

 that these two senses are blended together, and stimulated 

 either by touch or by a chemical reaction. The process is 

 not understood with any exactness. Nearly every part of a 

 lobster's body is subject to these stimulations. The stimula- 

 tion, whether of touch or chemical nature, is conveyed to 

 the lobster's nervous system by tiny hairs which cover most 

 of its body. They are its most important sense organs. Thus 

 it is that although encased in what seems a solid, impene- 

 trable armor, the lobster can receive stimuli and impres- 

 sions from without as readily as if it possessed a soft and 

 delicate skin. The dense shell of a lobster is in reality a veri- 

 table strainer, being perforated by hundreds of thousands 

 of minute passages which lead from the surface to the sen- 

 sory nerves that lie at the roots of the hairs. On the shorter 

 antennae these hairs are particularly evident, and the mouth 

 parts are more sensitive than the antennae. 



The hairs on the feet of lobsters are sensitive and are 

 an aid to the lobster as it explores the bottom for food, 

 whipping the water with its long antennae, and testing all 



8 See page 83. 



