THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
179 
DESCRIPTION OF SMALL LOBSTERS. 
The number of molts or the rapidity of growth is a question which now assumes 
special interest and, as I shall eventually show, it is subject to considerable individual 
variation. 
Two young lobsters after the seventh molt measured 18.4 and 19.5 mm. (Nos. 1, 2, 
table 35) and remained in this stage 21 and 18 days respectively. 
Lobster No. 1 (table 35). — The first of these was raised from the fourth stage. Its 
color in the sixth stage is represented on plate 24. The animal after the seventh molt 
was light brown, tinged with green, when observed on August 20. It exhibited the 
“death-feigning habit” in a very marked degree. This lobster molted for the eighth 
time on September 10, and died the day following, when it measured 21.2 mm. It was 
hatched about May 27, and was therefore 107 days old. 
Lobster No. 2 (table 35). — This young female lobster had just molted when first 
examined on July 13, and was then without doubt in the sixth stage. In color it 
closely resembled fig. 37, plate 24. ft molted for the seventh time on July 27, when it 
attained a length of 19.5 mm. The color at this time was but little changed, being 
a deep chocolate above, with the tendon marks on the carapace equally prominent. 
The triangular rostrum is somewhat narrower. The “ finger ” of the large claw 
and the outer branch of the tail-fan are cream- colored. The latter, as in the sixth 
stage, carries a very long fringe of seta 1 , which becomes characteristic of the adolescent 
period. These setie are about two-thirds the length of the uropod. The left clieliped, 
which was thrown off at the time of the sixth molt, had grown out again, so that after 
the seventh ecdysis the length of the new appendage was about seven-tenths of that 
on the opposite side. The length of the right chela was 0.5 mm.; of the left, 4.5 mm. 
The stalked eyes are now very large aud continue to grow relatively faster than 
the rest of the body until they attain great prominence in the adolescent stages, as 
already described. 
The first pair of abdominal appendages are present as small buds, and after the 
next molt their size is not greatly increased. 
After the eighth molt (August 14, length 22.0 mm.) there was but little noticeable 
change in color. The general cast is still brown, with a bluish green tinge on the 
carapace. The length of the fringing setie of tail fan — 1£ mm. — nearly equals that of 
the telson. The median sternal spines are present on the second to fifth abdominal 
somites, and have a bluish color. 
Lobster No. 3 (table 35). — This young female lobster was raised from the egg and 
placed under observation when in the third stage, July 4, 1892. At this time it was 
11 mm. long. It molted to the sixth stage on August 13, and when 1 finally left Woods 
Hole on the 23d of this month there had been no noteworthy change. When examined 
on September 22, by Dr. E. A. Andrews, it had attained the length of 19.75 mm. It is 
therefore highly probable that, only one intervening molt had occurred and that this 
happened late in August or early in the following month. It died before another 
ecdysis, on the 5th of October, when it was about 105 days old, having molted eight 
times. 
Lobster No. 4 (table 35). — When this lobster came under systematic observation, 
on the 25tli of July, it was in the sixth stage and 10.3 mm long. An account of its 
ecdyses, which were carefully watched, one occurring on that very day while in a dish 
upon my table, will be given in another place. (See p. 183.) 
