REPORT OF COMMISSIOXERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 187 



molt the following autumn and will find the lobster in the twenty-second 

 stage with a length of 222 mm. (8| inches). From Mr. E. W. Barnes, 

 the Superintendent of the Wickford Station of the Rhode Island 

 Commission of Inland Fisheries, the writer has learned that out of 

 many hundred female lobsters which he examined in the years 1902 

 to 1905, the smallest lobster which bore eggs was 8} inches long. 

 There were very few lobsters under 9 inches long which were "in 

 berry." Thus we may conclude that the molting periods for males and 

 females remain about the same until they are past the 9-inch length. 

 Therefore we may believe that the entrance to the twenty-third stage, 

 with the corresponding length of 247 inm. {9} inches), takes place fust 

 before (or at any rate very soon after) the lobster becomes five years old. 

 According to statistics furnished by Mr. Barnes, there are few female 

 lobsters which attain the 10-inch length that do not bear eggs; and 

 thus in the case of the females the rote of growth from this time on must 

 be much diminished. 



It is a well-known fact that the female lobsters extrude their eggs 

 but once in two years, and that the green or unripe eggs are carried 

 about for a period of 11 or 12 months before hatching. Although 

 there are a few cases in which the female lobster is said to have 

 molted just before spawning, the greater number of observations point 

 to the fact that, in general, the molting period of the mature female 

 lobster is limited to a longer or shorter period of time directly follow- 

 ing the hatching of the eggs. Consequently, since spawning occurs 

 but once in two years, the molting process can not occur oftener than 

 this; and the rate of growth is correspondingly diminished. This 

 fact is quite in accord with what we know of the cessation of growth 

 that is observable in many marine forms just previous to the spawning 

 period. After the extrusion of the eggs growth again commences and 

 continues until the approach of the next spawning period. The male 

 lobster, on the other hand, maintains the former rate of development; 

 so that, by the twenty-fourth stage, the average male has attained the 

 length of 275 mm. (11 inches) and must be at least 6 years of age; 

 in the case of the female lobster ivhich has borne eggs from the ninth 



