72 Part I11.—Twenty-third Annual Report 
motion of the water which would tend to float it away. It clings with 
all its pereiopods to the silk cloth of the bottom until the wave motion 
ceases, when it starts crawling again. Immediately the box is agitated, 
again it halts and holds on. 
In its ability to notice particles of food, the megalops appears to be as 
keen-sighted as the zoéa. Mead contrasts the habits of the zoéa and 
megalops. 
The next, that is the first young stage, swims about after copepods, and 
is to be seen swimming forward with the two chele extended together 
straight in front. The antenne of this stage are longer than in the 
megalops, and the following stage has still longer antenne. 
The stages subsequent to the megalops are even more difficult to 
distodge from the corner of the box. They cling tenaciously to the 
bottom (silk gauze) until the water is withdrawn and they are left 
stranded, Then they loose their hold to follow up the water. This fact 
probably accounts for these stages never being met with in the tow-net. 
They are really bottom forms, and in shallow water would require to be 
able to stick well to stones or in crevices to prevent their being washed 
away. 
A young form will sometimes swim round the edge of the box with the 
off antenna stretched out in front and the near one thrown back along 
the body. 
Appellof remarks regarding the first young stage that they hide in dark 
corners or under stones. They are then very stationary. He draws 
attention to the great caution shown by the young lobster, and considers 
that, in consequence of that trait, a relatively large percentage of them 
should survive, 
On the approach of winter the little lobsters in the Laboratory became 
very sluggish. In November and December 1902 they were rarely seen, 
except when the boxes were lifted. They stuck to the darkest corner of 
the box, and did not move about so much as they did earlier in the year. 
During these months there were hardly any copepods in the water supply, 
and this may have had something to do with their sluggishuess. The 
increasing cold was, however, doubtless the main predisposing cause of 
their inactivity. 
One of the most noticeable features that accompanies the transition from 
the zoéa to the megalops is the sudden change in the character of the 
animal. The zoéa swims about in an aimless way, except for the 
moments when it pursues a copepod. It paddles persistently, and when 
it strikes against the side of the box it jerks away quickly. It is not 
disturbed by noticing anything ; all it appears to see is the little particles 
of food. It evidently sees short distances only. The main point is its 
indifference to possible danger ; it does not attempt in any way to conceal 
itself. In the zoéa stage the lobster had no fear or premonition; in the 
megalops, it assumes with the adult garb the haunting fear of attack, 
which leads it to hide itself in some protecting crevice. It comes to 
rest in the darkest corner of the box, and while swimming about is 
always on the alert for a possible foe. For everything, food and pro- 
tection, it has to be completely self-dependent. The desire to hide 
appeared with the necessity. The bottom life is, without doubt, a 
dangerous one, possibly more so than the pelagic existence it had just 
passed through. Its eye still enables it to pick up copepods ; it is large, 
as in all the early stages of decopod crustacea. It no longer swims 
aimlessly about, but simply occasionally on a foraging expedition. 
All the larvze ate crab’s liver, and hunt it by sight as it falls. And in 
the case of the megalops, when a little crabs’ liver was introduced into the 
box, the lobster became very excited and rushed hither and thither, 
