LOBSTER. The largest of crustaceans (//o 2)1(1018 Meriean 11S) standing at the head of the macrouran decapods. (See Cm:sr:wt.:A.) Its allies are the shrimps, prawns, and especially the cray fish, Irons which group it differs in having very large claws (cliche). in the lobster the head and thorax are united into one region, the ceplialo thorax, covered by the shield or carapace, which really is an enlargement of the dorsal portions of two segments, i.e. those bearing the second pair of antenna and the mandibles. The body of the lobster consists of twenty segments, of which the seven in the abdomen are distinet, while the thir teen others, forming the thorax and head, are partly aborted, and more or less fused together. There are two pairs of antenna‘, a pair of man dibles, two pairs of maxill• or foot jaws, and three pairs of accessory footjaws or maxillipeds, The first pair of legs (chelipeds) end in the large chelate or nipper-like The smaller of the large claws ('fish-claw' or 'quick claw') is slen der, toothed, and inenrved at the tips, so that lobsters seize fish and shells, and grapple with one The other claw is thick and heavy, adapt ed for crushing heavy objects, and is en lied the 'club,' 'knobbed.' or 'numb claw.' Variations occur in the position of these claws, being either on the right or left side. Lobsters have been observed to transport small stones in their claws while en gaged in burrowing. The abdominal legs are, with the exception of the first pair, two-branched and called the swimming legs, or swimmerets. Of these the first pair are slender and not di vided in the female, while in the male they are inueh larger, thicker, and modified to serve as pairing organs, forming when placed together a funnel-like apparatus through which the sper matophores pass into the openings of the ovi ducts. - The last pair of appendages are very broad, attached on each side of a plate (telson) which represents the last segment of the body.
The eyes are large, compound, situated at the end of a thiek movable stalk, supposed by some to represent the appendages behind. As to the visual powers of the lobster we know very lit tle. :Judging by experiments. made on with similar faceted eyes, they are probably near-sighted and depend snore on perceiving the movements of other animals than clearly distin guishing their definite outlines. The sense of hearing is well developed, the rather complicated ear being situated in the broad joint of the smaller or first antenna. This consists of a membranous sac indicated by a clear oval space on tlie upper side of the joint, with a series of delieate feathery hairs arising from a ridge and provided each with a nerve. the ends of the hairs being immersed in a glairy fluid. The sae is penetrated by a slit through which pass water and minute grains of sand, which perform the function of violin-, or the ear-lomes of man. \\ ivies of sound impinge on the ear, the grains of sand shake about, and the vibrations are transmitted to the sensitive feathery hairs, thence to the nerves, which unite to form the auditory nerve given off from the eitniplieated brain, which is situated under the solid rostrum or beak.
The sense of smell is evidently acute and is lodged in little olfactory rods arising from the joints of the outer flagella of the first pair of As in insects and other animals, it is this sense which directs them to their food, rather than that of sight or even touch, the latter sense residing in the delicate hairs fringing the mouth and other head-alipendages. Lobsters are sensitive to light, and are much more active at night than by day, seeking food or their mates in the darkness.
11Afirrs. The food of the lobster is living as well as dead fish. the usual bait for lobster-traps being fresh dead fish. The food is comminuted in the fore-stomach ( proventriculns I, which is very huge and capacious, and at the posterior end the opening into the intestine is lined with a few very large teeth which serve as a strainer, 1.111)1:11 the food presses into the long straight intestine, which opens externally on the under side of the telson. Lohsters are known to live on snails, breaking off the shell of large one; piece by piece and picking out the soft parts. or swallowing small ones whole.
It is known that milts are very active and will if transported several miles from their original habitat find their way back. Several lots of lobsters marked with a tag were liberated at Woods Dole, Alass., after they were stripped of their eggs. They all moved toward the south west. One made the journey from Woods Hole to Cuttyhunk, a distance of 13 miles, in three days. One traveled 16 miles in twenty-seven days. A number returned to their original habitat at Cuttyhunk. Whether this forced mi gration is due to the so-called 'homing instinct,' or that they are impelled to seek cooler water, remains to he seen; none moved northward up Buzzard's Bay into the warmer miters. As is well known. the lobster can shoot backward to a considerable distance by suddenly flexing the abdomen under the cephalothorax, going aceo•d ing to Herrick "25 feet in less than a second." The geographical range of the lobster is from Henley ]]arbor, Labrador, at the eastern mouth of the straits of Belle Isle, southward to Dela ware Pay. though stragglers have been found off Cape Hatteras in thirty fathoms. and at Bean fort, N. C. They have been captured on the fishing banks of the bays of 'Alaine and Nova Scotia, and have been taken from the stomachs of cod caught on George's Bank. They are usually, however, found near rocky shores below low-water mark to a depth of 10 to 20 fathoms; toward winter they migrate into water from 35 to 40 fathoms deep. Large individuals weighing 20 pounds have been taken on the :Maine coast, and were males, yet females 19 and inches in length have been captured. They are bottom feeders, never rising more than a few feet above the bottom.
To walking they rest on the tips of the slender legs, extending the large claws forward in front of the head; while the swimming feet aid in pro gression. They arc said to catch the senlpin and sea-robin, and are supposed not infrequently to catch other fish.