100 COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



off. As it can again be regenerated the lobster is only maimed for a 

 short time, while the loss of the claw may prevent the lobster from 

 getting pulled out of its burrow and destroyed. 



12. SENSIBILITY TO LIGHT. 



The adult lobster is negatively heliotropic, i. e., it will endeavor 

 to get away from the light. This is not, however, characteristic of 

 all stages, In the first three larval stages the fry seem to seek the 

 lighted area (positively heliotropic) . The fourth stage also has this 

 peculiarity till near the end of the stage, when it seems to anticipate 

 the later stages and becomes negatively heliotropic. This negative 

 heliotropism is perhaps the explanation of the fact that at this time 

 also the lobster leaves the surface and begins to burrow at the bottom. 



It is an interesting fact, also, that the fry when confined in one of 

 the rearing cars, though closely crowded together, and carried rapidly 

 around by the current, will avoid, and keep some little distance 

 away from, any white object, such as a white stick or a paddle blade 

 thrust in among them. 



13. THE ENEMIES OF THE LOBSTER. 



From the moment of hatching until death, the lobster is beset 

 with enemies. The amount of harm which these can do, however, 

 decreases as the lobster becomes larger. Some of these enemies 

 are particularly antagonistic while the lobster is in the larval stages. 

 In this period the natural mode of life of the lobster fry renders them 

 helpless. Their efforts at swimming are little more than "treading 

 water." They are powerless against the slightest current of water, 

 and are an easy prey to even the smallest fishes. Shrimp and tautog, 

 as they frequent the places where the fry are found, are particularly 

 dangerous foes. But perhaps the lobsters are their own worst 

 enemies. A lobster larva? is just as willing to pounce upon a weaker 

 neighbor as upon the choicest morsel of food. 



After the larval period is past the lobster's enemies do not lessen, 

 but the lobster can better protect itself by burrowing among the 



