• 802 ISTATUEAL HISTOET OP AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



lost all its schizopodal characters, and has assumed the more important features of the adult 

 Lobster. It still retains, however, the free-swimming habit of the true larval forms, and was 

 frequently taken at the surface, both in the towing and hand net. Although resembling the 

 adult in many features, it differs so much that, were it an adult form, it would undoubtedly be 

 regarded as a distinct genus. The rostrum is bifid at tip, and armed with three or four teeth on 

 each side toward the base, and in some specimens with a minute additional spine, on one or both 

 sides, close to the tip. The flagella of the antennulse extend scarcely beyond the tip of the 

 rostrum. The antennal scale is very much reduced in size, but is still conspicuous afid furnished 

 with long plumose hairs along the inner margin, while the flagellum is as long as the carapax. 

 The palpi of the mandibles have assumed the adult character, but the mandibles themselves 

 have not acquired the massive molar character which they have in the older animal. The other 

 mouth organs have nearly the adult form. The anterior legs, althbugh quite large, are still 

 slender and just alike on the two sides, while all the cephalo-thoracic legs retain a distinct process 

 in place of the swimming exopodi of the larva. The lateral angles of the second to the fifth 

 ' abdominal segments are prolonged downward into long spiniform teeth; the appendages of these 

 segments are proportionately much longer than in the adult, and the margins of their terminal 

 lamellae are furnished with very long plumose hairs. The lamellae of the appendages of the 

 penultimate segment are oval, and margined with long plumose hairs. The terminal segment is 

 nearly quadrangiilar, as wide at the extremity as at the base, the posterior margin arcuate, but 

 not extending beyond the prominent lateral angles, and furnished with hairs like those on the 

 margins of the lamellae of the appendages of the penultimate segment. ' In color they resemble 

 closely the adult, but the green color of the back is lighter, and the yellowish markings upon 

 the claws and body are proportionately larger. 



" In this stage the young Lobsters swim very rapidly by means of the abdominal legs, and 

 dart backward, when, disturbed, with the caudal appendages, frequently jumping out of the water 

 in this way like Shrimp, which their movements in the water much resemble. They appear to be 

 truly suiface animals, as in the earlier stages, and were often seen swimming about aiciong other 

 surface animals. They were frequently taken from the 8th -to the 28th of July, and very likely 

 occur much later. From the dates at which the different forms were taken, it is probable that 

 they pass through all the stages here described in the course of a single season. How late the 

 young, after reaching the lobster-like form, retain their free-swimming habit was not ascer- 

 tained." 



Development op the European Lobster. — According to Prof. G. O. Sars, of Norway, 

 the European Lobster agrees more or less closely with our own species in its spawning habits 

 and development, as the following extract from his report will show : ^ 



" The propagating of the Lobster does not seem to be strictly confined to a certain season of 

 the year, as Lobsters with roe may be found nearly all the year round. But the rule seems to be 

 that the development of the young goes on during the summer months, from the beginning of 

 July until the early part of September. The more developed roe can easily be distinguished by its 

 lighter color, and partly, also, by the larger size of the eggs. . A closer examination shows distinctly 

 in every egg two dark spots, which are the eyes of the embryo. The more distinct these spots 

 are the more developed is the embryo. When its development is complete the egg-shell bursts, 

 and the young Lobsters come out. These are in the beginning very helpless and sink to the 

 boitoui, where within a very short time they undergo their first change of shell. Soon afterward 

 their swimming apparatus, which has so far been surrounded by a skin, begins to work, and the 



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^ Salt-water Fisheries of Norway. Christiania, 1878. 



