Know more about Lobster

One of the most curious creatures to be found in the sea is the lobster. It is a crustacean, which means a hard-shelled animal. It is related to the crawlfish, the shrimp and the prawn. There are three species of lobsters. American lobsters which live all along the Atlantic Coast from Labrador to the North Carolina, are the biggest members of the family. Next in size is the European lobster, which is found on the shores of the Atlantic. The smallest lobster is the African species found off the Cape of Good Hope.

      Lobster is encased in the suit of armour made of hard shell. This is usually dark green in colour but turns red when the lobster is boiled. The shell covering the front of the body is practically solid. The rest of the shell is divided into seven segments, the last of which forms the tail.

     Lobsters have four pairs of walking legs, two pairs of which have small pincers for feet, with claws in the front. They serve as hands rather than as feet. One of them, the club, is very thick and heavy. It is used for crushing tender objects. The other, the fish claw, is more slender, curved and provided with many sharp teeth. It is used to catch prey and defend from enemies.

     Lobsters usually walk about at the bottom of the sea balanced on the tips of their walking legs. When they are alarmed they make huge backward leaps through the water covering as much as 25 feet at a time.

    The female lobster lays from 5000 to 100000 eggs. She carries them about for some ten months, glued to the swimmerets under her tail. As soon as they hatch, the mother lobster fans the babies away to be on their own. The little lobster swims at the surface for six to eight weeks, during which period it can easily become a meal for some other animal. If it lives, it finally sinks down and makes its home on the bottom, in shallow water.

    One wonders how a lobster grows when it has a hard shell around. All through its life, the lobster moults. This means it sheds its armour, whenever it outgrows it. During its first year it moults fourteen to seventeen times, but when it grows older it moults not more than once a year.