4l4 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The questions of most immediate interest are : — (1) when are 

 the eggs laid ? (2) What is the length of the reproductive period, 

 or how often are the eggs produced ? (3) what is the law of 

 production, or the relation between the number of eggs and the 

 size of the animal producing them ? (4) how are the ova fertilized ? 

 (5) when do the young hatch ? (6) what is the law of survival of 

 the larvse ? 



I have recently gathered some new facts which bear par- 

 ticularly upon the first of these questions, and clear away much 

 obscurity which has surrounded it. Before giving these I will 

 first point out the condition in which this subject has remained 

 up to a very recent date.* 



It at first seemed probable that the breeding season of the 

 Lobster was not limited to a definite season of the year, but 

 further study convinced me that this conclusion was erroneous, 

 and in a paper published in 1891 the following statement was 

 made : — " The spawning season is confined to the summer months, 

 and the eggs which are then laid are carried by the female 

 throughout the fall, winter, and spring, and are not hatched 

 under natural conditions until the following summer" (Notes on 

 the Habits and Larval Stages of the American Lobster, ' Johns 

 Hopkins University Circulars,' vol. x., Sept. 1891). 



Bumpus ('Journal of Morphology,' vol. ii., Sept. 1891) tells 

 us, in his careful paper on the embryology of the Lobster, that 

 " the eggs are normally deposited during the months of July and 

 August." Eggs collected in winter at Nahant " were almost 

 invariably in the same advanced stage of development — the eyes 

 large and bright, the appendages well outlined, and the yolk 

 occupying but a fraction, perhaps one-third, of the surface 

 exposed." Of hundreds of Lobsters examined in May, 1890, at 

 Woods Holl, Mass., " not a single one had eggs in early stages of 

 development." Verrill (' Report upon the Invertebrate Animals 

 of Vineyard Sound, &c.' p. 745) affirmed that he had examined 

 Lobsters with freshly-laid eggs in December, and that the 

 breeding season extends over a large part of the year. 



The true answer to the first question propounded above 

 seems to be as follows : — The majority of adult Lobsters extrude 



* See " The Habits of the Lobster, and their Bearing on its Artificial 

 Propagation" (Bull. U.S. Fish Commission, vol. xiii. 1893). 



