96 Thirttcth Annual Meeting 



111 Gxperimonts conducted at A^'ood's Hole the time required 

 for these moults was considerably greater; of one lot, hatched 

 May 33d, the fourth stage was reached by a few only on June 

 12th, after an interval of twenty days. Indeed, on the twelfth 

 day (the average time of reaching the fourth stage at Wickford) 

 none had reached even the third stage at Wood's Hole. The 

 exj^lanation of the variations in the length of time required for 

 the first three stages probably lies in the difference in tempera- 

 ture of the water — the colder the water, the slower the develop- 

 ment. 



3. What are the general habits of life in the first four 

 stages ? 



Allusion has been made already to the swimming habits of 

 the fry in the first three stages and to the sudden change to the 

 crawling habit when the fourth stage is reached. 



The habit of shedding the skin begins when the lobsters are 

 two or three days old and continues throughout life. The inter- 

 vals between successive moults grow longer as the age increases. 

 It has already been stated that the first three moults occur, in 

 about twelve days, on the average, at Wickford. There is much 

 variation, according to different conditions. Late in life the 

 periods are longer, and the adult may not shed more than once a 

 year. In the first moults, as in the succeeding ones, the process 

 is the same, the old skin being split across the back, between the 

 thorax and the alxlomen, and the body worked out through this 

 opening, leaving the cast skin otherwise intact. 



The actual process of moulting usually occupies only a few 

 minutes, but not infrequently something goes wrong and the 

 struggle is quite prolonged. Often the lobster dies in the pro- 

 cess, and the period of moulting is at best a very precarious one 

 in the life of the lobster, whether in the young stages or in the 

 later ones. 



No animals, witli the exception of typhoid convalescents, are 

 more voracious than newly-hatched lol)sters. They feed normally 

 upon all sorts of minute organisms such as copepods. diatomes, 

 etc., and will readily eat some kinds of flesh, if chopped into fine 

 pieces and kept suspended in the water where the fry come in 

 contact with it. Apparently they do not distinguish food suffici- 

 ontlv well to go to it from anv considerable distance, but take 



