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Part III. — Tiuenty-third Annual Report 



occurs during moulting all arise. Saville Kent kept the little lobsters in 

 jars and fed them with a little minced fish ; the water was changed 

 every day. Eeceptacles on the intermittent syphon system were, he 

 considered, especially well suited for lobster-rearing. Weldon and 

 Fowler used for the food of the larvae the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, 

 crushed crab (Carcinus mcenas, Portunus depurator), boiled liver, the 

 contents of the tow net (at that period chiefly Nodiluca and 

 copepoda), and live shrimp larvae ; they were all partially, none abso- 

 lutely, successful. Cunningham usually fed the larvae with particles 

 obtained by crushing and pounding common shore-crabs, but he made 

 special and careful trials of live food. Living minute animals 

 caught in the sea in the tow-net were introduced, but none of the 

 larvae were seen to try to catch them. The fish larvae and the larvae 

 of a shrimp were not attacked. But the fish larvae and little shrimps, if 

 killed before being put into the jar, were immediately seized. He 

 concluded that the young lobsters are naturally carrion feeders, devourers 

 of dead food, although inclined to cannibalism. 



Mead found that the fry fed upon all sorts of minute organisms (cope- 

 pods, diatoms, etc.), and readily ate some kinds of flesh if it was chopped 

 into fine pieces and kept suspended in the water, where they came in con- 

 tact with it. The best food was the soft parts of clams (Jlya arenaria.) 

 Chadwick fed the lobster fry " daily upon the finely-minced liver of the 

 shore-crab (Carcinus mamas), and the edible crab (Cancer pagurus), and 

 for a time they appeared to thrive on it, but at the time of the ecdyses 

 or shell-castings many died, and comparatively few reached the 1 lobster- 

 ling ' [megalops] stage." 



Appellof reared the young lobster over the larval stages till the age, in 

 one case, of seven months. A great mortality occurred owing to the 

 inability of the larvae to get rid of the integument when moulting. 

 According to this zoologist, as soon as the third casting has passed, and 

 it has reached the fourth stage [megalops], it swims, but soon goes to 

 the bottom, and behaves like an adult. In the fifth stage the swimming 

 power goes ; they are then very sedentary. 



Her rick describes a variety of food which he found in the stomachs of 

 lobster larvae, viz. (1) diatoms in abundance, chiefly Kavicula and the 

 long tangled ribbons of Tabellaria ; (2) remains of Crustacea, probably 

 parts of young lobsters ; (3) bacteria in large numbers ; (4) cotton and 

 linen fibres, and parts of algae. " The food of the larval lobster must 

 necessarily consist, for the most part, of minute pelagic organisms, such 

 as copepods and crustacean larvae. When watched in confinement they 

 may now and then be seen giving chase to copepods, often without success. 

 The young lobster, however, shows little discrimination in its food. It 

 seems to snap up almost any moving object, living or dead, which it is able 

 to seize and swallow." Herrick has stated that one difficulty arises in 

 raising the young of the lobster in close quarters, from the fact that the 

 young invariably preferred to feed on one another. The death-rate was, 

 however, he considers, due in part to other causes. In this connection, 

 an extract from the Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission, vol. xvii., 

 1897, p. 135, is interesting: — "During the spring and summer particular 

 attention was paid to the food, habits, and growth of the young lobster, 

 and much valuable information was obtained at Wood's Hole, where 

 extensive experiments were conducted on the holding of fry during the 

 larval stages. The experiments indicate that, under natural conditions, 

 the young lobster is much less a cannibal than has been believed, eating 

 his fellows only when natural food is not available." 



