68 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Table 20. — General condition of the sexual organs, of the external and internal eggs, etc. — Continued. 
No. 
Sex. 
Length. 
Date of 
capture. 
Locality. 
Inches . 
1890. 
86 
Female . 
u 
Aug. 21 
Gay Head, 
rock bot- 
tom. 
87 
. - .do 
9| 
...do . ... 
do 
88 
12 
..do 
89 
...do 
90 
...do .... 
10J 
... do 
1891 
do 
91 
. . .do 
5f 
July 22 
Woods Hole 
Harbor. 
92 
...do .... 
... do 
do 
93 
. . . do 
7}« 
July 24 
do 
94 
. .do 
Oh 
July 30 
do 
95 
... do 
9i 
July 30 
do 
96 
...do .... 
91 
Aug. 4 
do 
97 
- ..do 
12 
Aug. 5 
Menemsba. . 
98 
99 
. . do 
...do 
015 
"T5 
2 5 2 s 
June 30 
W oods Hole 
Harbor. 
100 
.. .do 
111 
July 18 
Menemsha. . 
Condition of sexual 
organs. 
Ovary cream color 
Ovary light green, 
flecked with yellow 
(degenerating eggs) 
and white (young 
eggs). 
Ovary whitish , flecked 
with yellow spots, 
and dark green un- 
extruded eggs. 
do 
Ovary same as in No.87 . 
Ovary white, 15mm. in 
diameter. 
Ovary whitish, with 
tinge of pink, 3 mm. 
in diameter. 
Ovary white, about 
3mm. in diameter. 
Ovaries nearly ripe; 
seminal receptacle 
charged with sperm . 
Light green. Ova light 
yellowish green. No 
sperm in seminal re- 
ceptacle. 
Ovary nearly ripe. Fe- 
male impregnated. 
Ovary light pea green. 
Female impregnated. 
Ovary white; length If 
in. ; diameter in. 
Condition of swim- 
merets. 
Clean 
External eggs 
about six weeks 
old, extruded 
about July 10. 
External eggs in 
egg - n an pi i us 
stage, laid about 
August 6. 
do 
Clean 
External eggs in 
late segmenta 
tion 
Kemarks. 
Immature. 
Very hard shell. See 
drawing of ovary and 
ova, figs. 137 and 135, 
plate 38. 
Soft shell. 
Shell fairly hard. 
Do. 
Hard shell. 
Do. 
Do. 
Hard shell. For sec- 
tion of ovary, see tig. 
140. 
Shell hard ; to molt 
soon ; eggs hatched 
this season. See 
drawing' of ovary and 
ovum, figs. 138 and 
133, pi. 38. 
Hard shell. See draw 
ing of ovary, fig. 132, 
pi. 38. 
Eggs laid about July 25. 
These results, with those given in table 15, show very clearly that on the coast of 
Massachusetts female lobsters become sexually mature and produce eggs for the first 
time when they have attained the length of from 8 to 12 inches. Very few lobsters 
under 9 in plies m length have external eggs, while only few have attained the length 
of 101 inches without having them. The limits of 9 and 10 inches, wliich have been 
variously adopted, are therefore too small, and should be increased if the lobster is to 
receive the benefit which ns intended by this form of legislation. It is clearly illogical 
to protect the very small lobster and not to extend protection to the lobster which is 
about to spawn, in view of the natural increase of the species, since the latter has the 
greater chance of survival. It is liiglily probable that the majority of female lobsters 
101 inches long are sexually mature. It is possible that the limit is sometimes extended 
at both extremes and that very rarely a lobster produces eggs before it is 8 or even 71 
inches long or fails to produce them until it is over 12 inches in length. Out of over a 
thousand egg-bearing lobsters which have been examined at the Woods Hole station 
during the past four years there have been found only 20 lobsters measuring from 8 
to 8| inches, or less than 2 per cent of the total number with external eggs. (For 
statistics of the majority of these, see table 15.) The hundred lobsters, the dissec- 
tions of which are tabulated above, were not, however, taken at haphazard, but were 
selected in many cases to illustrate the development of the ovary and its growth 
between two successive sexual periods. 
