A'STACUS (Leach, Desmarest), a genus of Long-Tailed Crustaceous Animals, including the common Lobster. It was formed by Gronovius from the genus Cancer of Linnaeus and of ancient authors, which also comprised the Short-Tailed Crustaceous Dceapods, with tho exception of /fippa. Fabrieius broke it down into the genera Pogurus, Galathea, and Scyllarus ; leaving As'acus to represent a certain number of Crustaceans, from which he afterwards, having the advantage of Dahlorff's labours, separated the genera Palinurus, Pal Alpheus, Penns, and Cranjon. Our countryman Leach, in adopting the genus as left in its last shape by Fabricius, separates from it the genus Nephrops, of which there is only one species recorded, the Norway Lobster (Nephrops Normvicus). Desmarest adopts the views of Leach, and the genus Astacus is now reduced to very few species.
Of these species the most interesting, from their commercial value as food, are the common Lobster (Astacus marinas) and the Craw-Fish (A st aces flu riat ilis.) • The Lobster is found in the greatest abundance on the rocky coasts of this kingdom, in clear water of no very great depth, at the time of depositing its eggs, about the middle of summer. Pennant mentions the great quantities supplied to the London markets, in his time, from the Orkneys and the eastern coasts of Scotland ; and states the number annually brought, in well-boats from the neighbourhood of Montrose alone at 60,000 or 70,000. But almost incredible as the consumption of this species is, nature has provided for its security by the most profuse fecundity. Doctor Baster says that he counted 12,444 eggs under the tail of one female lobster, besides those that remained in the body unprotruded.
Lobsters are very voracious, and the fishery for them is carried on by means of traps, or ' pots' (as they are called in some places), made of tw:gs, baited with garbage, lowered into the sea and marked by a buoy ; sometimes by nets baited with the same materials; and in wine countries, by torch-light, with the aid of a wooden instrument, which acts like a forceps or a pair of tongs.
One of the best narratives of the habits of the lobster extant, is to be found in the following letter from Mr. Travis, of Scarborough, to Mr. Pennant, dated on the 25th October, 1768 : " We have vast numbers of fine lobsters on the rocks near our coast. The large ones are in general in their best season from the middle of October till the beginning of May. Many of the small ones, and some
few of the larger sort, are good all the summer. If they be 44 inches long, or upwards, from the tip of the head to the end of the back shell, they are called sizeable lobsters. If only 4 inches, they are esteemed half size ; and when sold, two of t our are reckoned for one of size. If they be under 4 inches, they are called Pewits, and are not saleable to the carriers, though in reality they are in the summer months superior to the large ones in goodness. The pincers of one of the lobster's large claws are furnished with knobs, and those of the other claw are always serrated. With the former it keeps firm hold of the stalks of submarine plants, and with the latter it cuts and minces its food very dexterously. The knobbed, or munb claw, as the fisher men call it, is sometimes on the right side, and sometimes on the left, indifferently. It is more dangerous to be seized by them with the cutting claw than the other; but, in either case, the quickest way to get disengaged from the creature is to pluck off its claw. It seems peculiar to the lobster and crab when their claws are pulled off that they will grow again, but never so largo as at first.
" The female or hen lobster does not cast her shell the seine year that she deposits her ova, or in the common phrase, is ' in berry.' When the ova first appear under her tail, they are very small and extremely black ; but they become, in succession, almost as large as ripe elder berries before they are deposited, and turn of a dark-brown colour, especially towards the end of the time of her depositing them. They continue full and depositing the ova in constant succession, as long as any of that black substance can be found in their body, which when boiled turns of a beautiful red colour, and is called their Coral. lien 'lobsters are found in berry at all times of the year, but chiefly in winter. It is a common mistake, that a berried hen is always in perfection for the table. When her berries appear large and brownish, she will always be found exhausted, watery, and poor. Though the ova be cast at all times of the year, they seem only to Come to life during the warm summer months of July and August. Great numbers of them may then be found, under the appearance of tadpoles, swim ming about the little pools left by the tides among the rocks, and many also under their proper form, from half an inch to four inches in length.