72 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Table 21 . — Percentage of male to female lobsters and the percentage of egg-bearing females taken in 
JVoods Hole Harbor. 
Time of capture. 
For 
1889, 
1889, 
1889, 
1893, 
1894, 
1894, 
1894. 
1894, 
1894, 
1894, 
whole 
to 30. 
May. 
June. 
Dec. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
March. 
April. 
May. 
June. 
period. 
Total catch 
104 
912 
2,184 
224 
501 
246 
348 
457 
434 
447 
5, 887 
Males 
49 
440 
1, 009 
123 
250 
116 
161 
247 
197 
219 
2,811 
Females 
55 
502 
1, 175 
101 
251 
130 
187 
210 
237 
228 
3,076 
Males under 10 inches 
49 
49 
418 
976 
97 
9.15 
107 
22 
33 
26 
35 
9 
24 
37 
24 
23 
Females under 10 inches 
55 
55 
Females under 10£ inches 
439 
1, 099 
78 
194 
106 
147 
163 
207 
1 Q9 
9 (195 
63 
76 
23 
57 
24 
Females with eggs 
22 
185 
108 
22 
36 
n 
12 
33 
34 
20 
483 
Females without eggs 
33 
317 
1,067 
79 
215 
119 
175 
177 
203 
208 
2, 593 
Females under 10 inches with 
22 
Females under 1(H inches with 
131 
63 
Females over lot inches with 
54 
45 
Percentage of females with eggs 
to total number of females 
40 
36 
9 
21.78 
14. 34 
8. 46 
6.42 
15. 71 
14. 35 
8. 77 
17. 48 
Percentage of females with eggs 
to whoie catch 
21 
19.6 
4.9 
9. 82 
7. 18 
4.47 
3. 45 
7.22 
7. 83 
4. 47 
8. 99 
Percentage of females to males. . . 
112.2 
114.3 
116.4 
82.1 
100.4 
112. 07 
116. 15 
85. 02 
120. 30 
104.11 
106. 30 
The inspector of fisheries for the Province of Prince Edward Island says: 
In 1879 returns from almost all the factories then in operation gave, for the whole catch, only 
from 3 to 10 per cent in spawn, much the larger portion being in July. 
This agrees closely with the results obtained at Woods Hole, but it does not 
follow, as Mr. Duvar supposes, “that one-fifth of the females carry ova each year,” 
or that “there are four times as many young’ breeders coming forward as there are 
egg-bearers,” and “that one-fourth of the number come into breeding year after 
year” ( 209 , p. 234), since the adult lobster does not breed annually, as he erroneously 
supposes. 
From December 1, 1893, to May 1, 1894, 358 female lobsters measuring 10 inches 
or more in length were taken in the harbor of Woods Hole, and 1,234 were captured 
during the same period at FTo Man’s Land, in all 1,592 lobsters, 57 per cent of which 
bore external eggs. If we include the 9-inch lobsters, we find that the total number 
of females taken at both places is 1,779, and that 53 per cent carried eggs. This 
supports the conclusion already reached from the study of anatomy, that the lobster 
breeds once in two years, in which case 50 per cent, or fully one-half, of all sexually 
mature female lobsters spawn in some part of each year. It also shows very forcibly 
that valid inferences respecting the breeding habits can not be drawn from observa- 
tions made in a restricted area. Thus, had our attention been confined to Woods 
Hole it would have appeared that only one-fifth of adult females bore eggs (from 
December to May), or that the lobster spawned only once in five years. 1 
'Ebrenbaum (61) fonud that only 25.4 per cent of females supposed to he of adult age caught at 
Heligoland carry eggs, and hence concluded that the European lobster becomes productive only once 
in four years. Besides the objection that the data are derived from one locality, which, as table 21 
shows, is a serious one, there is the further difficulty that over 10 per cent of these female lobsters 
were captured during the months of July, August, and September, when, according to Ehrenbaum, 
both the laying and the hatching of the eggs occur. This alone might vitiate the result. The best 
way to test this question by experiment would be to take a female which had recently hatched a brood 
and keep her alive until the following summer, when the next batch of eggs would be due, in case the 
spawning period is a biennial one. So far as I know, this has never been done. 
