THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
137 
Changes in color pattern are more elusive. There is (1) the normal variety, in 
which the upper part of the body is mottled with green, blue, and cream color; (2) 
spotted or “calico” lobsters, the coloration of which is a bold pattern of green and 
light-yellowish or cream-colored spots; (3) pied or parti colored varieties, in which 
the contrast of tints is abnormally pronounced. This may perhaps be better classed 
under substantive variation. The changes are due apparently to vital or physiological 
causes, which liave at least no adaptational significance. 
We will presently consider in more detail the variations which have just been 
enumerated, but must first speak of the eggs. 
COLOR OP THE EGGS. 
The eggs of the lobster furnish a good example of substantive variation. The 
body of the animal is opaque, so that it is affected but little by the color of the ovaries, 
and not at all when seen from above, by that of the external eggs. 
The freshly laid ovum is of a dark green (fig. 24, pi. 17), sometimes almost black, 
color, due to the presence of a dissolved lipochromogen. The golden-yellow variation, 
which is often associated with dark green, as in the eggs of Alpheus heterochelis and 
A. saulcyi ( 94 , p. 375), has never been observed, but occasionally the ova are of a light, 
almost pea- green color, or some tint between this and very dark green. Rarely the 
new eggs are light grayish green. 1 received a. lobster from Woods Hole in December, 
with external eggs of a very light greenish straw-color. (See fig. 23, pi. 17.) These 
were in an early stage of development, and had been laid but a few weeks. It was 
the most striking color variation in the ova which I have yet seen. Such changes as 
these can not be interpreted as having any adaptational significance. 
If the eggs are treated with hot water, alcohol, or other killing reagents the green 
lipochromogen is quickly converted into red lipochrome. When the water is heated 
gradually the red color appears slowly, and it is interesting to observe that if these 
red eggs are now plunged into cold water the green color is restored. This change 
may be somewhat analogous to the breaking up and reconstruction of the blue com- 
pound of starch and iodine upon the successive application of heat and cold, and to the 
variation in color which sometimes appears in the living animal at the time of the molt. 
Soon after the water has been brought to the boiling point the red color becomes 
permanent. 
BLUE LOBSTERS. 
Lobsters of a deep, almost uniform ultramarine color are sometimes met with and 
never fail to attract attention. 1 The color, which is often of a rich indigo along the 
middle of the upper part of the body, shades off into a brighter and clearer tint on 
the sides and extremities. The upper surface of the large claws is blue and purple, 
faintly mottled with darker shades, while underneath is a delicate cream tint. The 
under parts of the body tend also to melt into alight cream color, and this is also true 
of the spines and tubercles of the shell and appendages, which are usually bright red. 
A lobster of the foregoing description was caught off Hurricane Island by Thomas 
Garrett, in April, 1874. It was a female, had a hard shell, and weighed about 2 pounds. 
A very bright blue lobster was taken at Graud Manan, Maine, in August, 1893. 
'DeKay (51) speaks of a variety of lobsters called Bluebacks, but bis impressions that they are 
derived from one part of the coast, that they have thin shells, and that they are chiefly seen in early 
May, were all erroneous. He also remarked that they were highly prized by epicures. 
