S04 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



EXPERIMENTS ON LOBSTER REARING. 

 By H. C. Chad wick. 



The following notes and accompanying figures are 

 based upon experiments in hatching and rearing larvae 

 of the common lobster, conducted in the fish hatchery at 

 Port Erin during the months of July and August, 1904. 



Female lobsters, carrying nearly ripe eggs, were 

 obtained at the latter end of June and the beginning of 

 July, and were kept in the compartments of the hatching 

 tanks, excepting those at the ends of the tanks, in each of 

 which a k ' Dannevig " box was fixed. The first larvae 

 were hatched during the early hours of the morning of 

 July loth, and were carried by the current of water 

 running through the tanks into the boxes at the lower 

 ends, from whence they were transferred by means of a 

 pipette to the boxes at the upper ends. Short lengths 

 of rubber tubing carried the stream of water from the 

 taps directly into the boxes, thus ensuring abundant 

 aeration and a fairly rapid whirling motion of the whole 

 body of water in the box. 



From the above-named date onwards for several 

 weeks from 100 to 400 larvae were hatched during every 

 night until the number reached 5,000. They were fed 

 daily upon the finely minced liver of the shore crab, 

 Carcinus mcenas, and the edible crab, Cancer pagurus, and 

 for a time appeared to thrive upon it, but at the time of 

 the ecdyses or shell castings many died, and comparatively 

 few reached the " lobsterling " stage 



Immediately after the rupture of the egg-shell, the 

 young lobster (fig. 1) is seen with the abdomen, or " tail " 

 as it is commonly called, closely applied to the ventral 

 face of the thorax, and the thoracic appendages folded in 



