THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
47 
caused surprise, may have laid their eggs during the last half of J uly, and that very 
few in reality extruded their eggs during the first part of this month. It is not 
probable that any eggs were laid in June. 
In the second week of August, 1893, a vessel came into Portland, Maine, bringing 
lobsters from Seguin Island and Georgetown. Very few lobsters were at this time 
(August 13 to 20) with spawn. 
I have been told by fishermen and others that lobsters are sometimes taken out 
of the wells of smacks in winter with very dark, external eggs, when it had been the 
rule to carefully exclude every egg-lobster in loading the boat, the inference being 
that lobsters had laid while in the well. Allowing a wide loophole for error in such 
cases, it is very evident from the facts already recorded that this is quite likely to 
happen. 
Mr. Nielsen gives the spawning period for lobsters in Newfoundland as extending 
from the 20th of July to the 20th of August (Annual Report of the Newfoundland 
Fisheries Commission, 1892), but also states, in reply to certain questions which 1 
endeavored to have answered, that lobsters were taken with newly laid eggs up to 
the latter part of September. 
The spawning months for the lobster in Prince Edward Island are said to be July 
and August. We have no data whatever upon the spawning habits of the lobster on 
the coast of Labrador, or in the extreme southern parts of its range. 
Considering the fact that the lobster is distributed through 20 degrees of latitude, 
there is less variation in the time of spawning than might be expected. 
THE LAYING OF THE EGGS AND THE ABSORPTION OF OVARIAN OVA. 
I have not seen the process of egg extrusion and consequently have no direct 
observations to record. It has, however, been witnessed in other Crustacea where it is 
undoubtedly similar. In two instances lobsters have laid eggs while kept in small 
aquaria in the laboratory of the United States Fish Commission. Since these animals 
were under constant surveillance during the day, it is almost certain that the eggs 
were deposited in the night or early morning, as is the well-known habit of many 
decapods. In each case the mother lobster scratched off nearly all of her eggs in the 
course of a few days. 1 In other attempts to observe this process, where the eggs seemed 
to be overdue, I dissected the animals and found that the ova were retained and partially 
absorbed. This led to other attempts with similar results. 
Two “ripe” female lobsters, measuring 11.5 and 9 inches, respectively, were cap- 
tured July 30 in Woods Hole Harbor, and placed in a large floating car, which was 
kept covered so that the lobsters were not exposed to direct sunlight. Fifteen days 
later, August 14, their ovaries were examined. In the smaller individual more than 
half the ovarian eggs, which were overdue, were in various stages of degeneration, 
thus giving the ovary a remarkable appearance. Instead of the uniform dark green 
hue, it was of a light yellow or straw color flecked with darker green areas, where 
1 Ehrenbaum (61, p. 287), who mentions a single case of a female lobster which was found lying on 
its hack shortly after the eggs had been extruded from the body, says: “The mass of eggs lay in the 
mold formed by the folded abdomen without being fixed, since the cement had not as yet hardened. 
When the animal, in consequence of a disturbance, soon made movements and tried to get upon its 
feet, most of the eggs were left at the bottom of the aquarium, and only a small number were already 
so firmly fixed that they clung to the swimming feet.” 
