LOBSTERS AND THEIR EGGS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 70, 21 February 1918, Page 3

LOBSTERS AND THEIR EGGS.

Professor Bouvier, of the Paris Natural History Museum, has been for a considerable period studying the transformation of the lobster from the egg stage. His studies have been carried out at a maritime laboratory, which is well fitted for the purpose; the character of the coast is such that the lobsters are abundant among the rocks surrounding the lighthouse, and they tend to remain in this place. After hatching, the younjr 'have an p entirely different, form from that whjch we know, and In the larval state are quittf transparent. The body has three pairs of and Is flat like a leaf, hence the name "phyllosoma," which is given them. Of very minute size, they live entirely in the water. No fewer than nine stages of transformation are observed between the larva and the perfect state, but the larva could not be cultivated up to the present. On the other hand, there were a few rare specimens found of what is known as "puerulus," considered by some as one stage in the evolution, but this was not certain. Professor Bouvier now proves this to be a fact, and it represents the lobster at the time when it ceases swim and takes up its lodging fn ' rocks. At this time it is about Inch long and quite transparent, ' a rather soft shell. J'