294 



ZOOLOGY 

 FlG. 132. 



FIG. 132. The American Lobster (Homarus americanus) . From Herrick. 



Questions on the figure. What body-regions are distinguishable in the 

 lobster? Compare by actual measurement the size of the crushing claw with that 

 of the body. How many segments in the abdominal region? Compare with 

 Fig. 130. 



food species. It is estimated that as many as one hundred million lobsters have 

 been taken in a single year in New England and Canadian waters. There is no 

 doubt that the lobster is in immediate danger of extinction as a food animal, as is 

 shown by the fact of greater difficulty in obtaining them and by the decrease in 

 the average size of the animals put on the market. This decrease occurs in the 

 face of the fact that the mature female produces from ten thousand to one hundred 

 thousand eggs. These are carried under the abdomen of the mother until hatched, 

 which requires a period of ten or eleven months. After hatching the young 

 undergo a series of moultings during which time they are the prey of many kinds 

 of enemies. Such is the mortality that, on an average, not so many as two of all 



