54 



BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



difficult to say, and whether the sexual decline is gradual or not it is impossible to 

 decide from the data at hand. In this connection, however, it is interesting to recall 

 the fact that the male lobster attains greater size than the female. The large lobsters, 

 weighing upward of 20 pounds and measuring upward of 20 inches in length, are 

 invariably males, so far as my observation extends. 



The largest egg-bearing lobsters of which I have any record were taken 15 miles 

 southwest of No Man's Land, June 9, 1894, and examined by Vinal N. Edwards. One 

 19 inches long, carried 91,350 eggs, which weighed 15 ounces; another, 16 inches in 

 length, bore 97,110 eggs, which measured 16 fluid ounces and weighed nearly a 

 pound. Mr. Edwards said that the mass of eggs was in these cases so great that the 

 animals were unable to completely fold their "tails." (See p. 34.) A lobster with 

 external eggs was taken at Green Island, Maine, in November, 1892, which, according 

 to Mr. F. W. Collins, weighed 18£ pounds. 



Individuals 



115 

 HO 

 105 

 100 

 95 

 90 

 85 

 BO 

 75 

 70 

 65 

 60 

 55 

 50 

 45 

 40 

 35 

 30 

 25 

 20 

 15 

 lO 

 5 

 t 





















































































































1 '* 1 











1 ' I 



























1 











1 











I 





















1 











1 









































lOOO 5000 lOOOO 15000 20000 25000 Eggs. 



Cut 3. — Curve showing the relative fecundity of 352 lobsters, each 10 inches long. 



Number of individuals laid off on ordinate. 

 Number of eggs laid off on abscissa. 



The No Man's Land lobsters seemed to carry rather more eggs than those of the 

 same length captured elsewhere. Thus 234 lobsters, 13 inches long, from No Man's 

 Land produced on the average 29,526 eggs (extremes 6,090-48,720), while for 79 

 lobsters caught elsewhere the average production was 26,518 (extremes as above). 

 The small number examined in the last instance shows, however, that the comparison 

 has little or no value. 



The variation in the number of eggs borne by lobsters of the same length is often 

 very great, and is as marked in large as in small individuals. Thus in 152 cases the 

 average production of lOJ-inch lobsters was about 11,000 eggs (the average in 532 

 cases, table 15, is nearly 13,000); 32 per cent of this number bore from 12,000 to 13,000 



