70 Part I1.-—Twenty-third Annual Report 
occurs during moulting all arise. Saville Kent kept the little lobsters in 
jars and fed them with a little minced fish; the water was changed 
every day. Receptacles on the intermittent syphon system were, he 
considered, especially well suited for lobster-rearing. Weldon and 
Fowler used for the food of the larve the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, 
crushed crab (Carcinus menas, Portunus depurator), boiled liver, the 
contents of the townet (at that period chiefly octiluca and 
copepoda), and live shrimp larva ; they were all partially, none abso- 
lutely, successful. Cunningham usually fed the larve with particles 
obtained by crushing and pounding common shore-crabs, but he made 
special and careful trials of live food. Living minute animals 
caught in the sea in the tow-net were introduced, but none of the 
larvae were seen to try to catch them. ‘Ihe fish larve and the larve 
of a shrimp were not attacked. But the fish larve and little shrimps, if 
killed before being put into the jar, were immediately seized. He 
concluded that the young lobsters are naturally carrion feeders, devourers 
of dead food, although inclined to cannibalism. 
Mead found that the fry fed upon all sorts of minute organisms (cope- 
pods, diatoms, etc.), and readily ate some kinds of flesh if it was chopped 
into fine pieces and kept suspended in the water, where they came in con- 
tact with it. The best food was the soft parts of clams (I/ya arenaria.) 
Chadwick fed the lobster fry “‘ daily upon the finely-minced liver of the 
shore-crab (Carcinus menas), and the edible crab (Cancer pagurus), and 
for a time they appeared to thrive on it, but at the time of the ecdyses 
or shell-castings many died, and comparatively few reached the ‘ lobster- 
ling ’ [megalops] stage.” 
Appelléf reared the young lobster over the larval stages till the age, in 
one case, of seven months. A great mortality occurred owing to the 
inability of the larve to get rid of the integument when moulting. 
According to this zoologist, as soon as the third casting has passed, and 
it has reached the fourth stage [megalops], it swims, but soon goes to 
the bottom, and behaves like an adult. In the fifth stage the swimming 
power goes ; they are then very sedentary. 
Herrick describes a variety of food which he found in the stomachs of 
lobster larvae, viz. (1) diatoms in abundance, chiefly Vavicula and the 
long tangled ribbons of Yabellaria ; (2) remains of crustacea, probably 
parts of young lobsters; (3) bacteria in large numbers; (4) cotton and 
linen fibres, and parts of alge. ‘‘The food of the larval lobster must 
necessarily consist, for. the most part, of minute pelagic organisms, such 
as copepods and crustacean larve. When watched in confinement they 
may now and then be seen giving chase to copepods, often without success. 
The young lobster, however, shows little discrimination in its food. It 
seems to snap up almost any moving object, living or dead, which it is able 
to seize and swallow.” Herrick has stated that one difficulty arises in 
raising the young of the lobster in close quarters, from the fact that the 
young invariably preferred to feed on one another. The death-rate was, 
however, he considers, due in part to other causes, In this connection, 
an extract from the Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission, vol. xvii., 
1897, p. 135, is interesting :—‘ During the spring and summer particular 
attention was paid to the food, habits, and growth of the young lobster, 
and mutch valuable information was obtained at Wood’s Hole, where 
extensive experiments were conducted on the holding of fry during the 
larval stages. The experiments indicate that, under natural conditions, 
the young lobster is much less a cannibal than has been believed, eating 
his fellows only when natural food is not available.” 
