Abstract
WHILST the development of the lobster from the Schizopod stage onward to an inch or a little more is fairly well known, the great rarity of the stages between that and 3 in. or 4 in. (second year) has often puzzled marine zoologists. For instance, only once in many years has a small lobster of about 4 in. been seen at St. Andrews, and this example was tossed amidst a vast quantity of débris on shore after a violent storm. Prof. Prince, Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries for Canada, and president-elect of the American Fisheries Society, who has inaugurated many important advances in scientific fisheries work, tells me that Prof. Knight, who has been investigating the subject, finds that “after the pelagic stage the young lobster appears to frequent shallow bays and make a definite burrow with two entrances, and it sits on guard at one, but if in danger escapes by the other. It is very quick in emerging, but Prof. Knight and his assistant got 200 to 300 in a bay in Prince Edward Island. Now we know the reason of our failing to capture these very small lobsters from 1 in. to 3 in. long. The dredge cannot secure them, yet they must occur in countless millions in our Canadian bays, since many more than 100,000,000 adults are taken in our waters for canning and the live-lobster trade in good years.” Thus the rarity of the little lobsters of the stage indicated is explained.
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MCINTOSH, W. Tube-dwelling Phase in the Development of the Lobster. Nature 106, 441 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106441b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106441b0
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