Biology of a Lobster

How do you tell the sex of the lobster?

On the “belly” side of the lobster are swimmerets. They are small feather-like appendages on the tail. The first pair of swimmerets that are closet to the main part of the lobster’s body, are tough, hard, and bony. The rest of them are soft like all of the swimmerets on a female. Female lobsters have a small shield that is rectangular and lies between her second pair of legs. This is where the sperm are stored after mating before she lays her eggs. Additionally, females have bigger and wider tales than males as they need the broadness to carry a lot of eggs. 
http://www.gma.org/lobsters/trivia.html

How do lobsters mate?

Before a female lobster begins her molting process, she approaches a male and releases her scent by urinating. If he chooses to accept her, he will come out of his niche and the two have a short sparring battle. When the female is ready to molt and mate, she puts her claws on the male’s head to let him know she is ready. When the male and female lobsters enter his niche the female gets out of her shell in the molting process. The male then proceeds to flip the female over onto her back using his legs and mouth. Next, the male passes his sperm into the female’s body between her sets of legs, using his rigid and hard swimmerets, which are small appendages usually used for swimming. The female lobster then stays in the male’s niche, until her new shell is hard. 

http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/how-do-lobsters-mate-reproduce-and-lay-eggs-in-the-ocean

Watch a video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPTtkS_rh2k

    

                                                                                How do lobster’s breathe?

Lobster’s just like most underwater creatures breathe through their gills. However A lobster’s gills are located at the bottom of its walking legs. This is the equivalent to humans breathing from their hips! Gills are feathery blood-filled organs that extract oxygen from seawater. The blood that is in the gills then travel to other parts of the body, delivering oxygen to all areas. A lobster must keep water moving through its gills just like human keep breathing in order to continuously have oxygen move through the body. 

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine-life/lobster-info3.htm

How do lobster’s grow?

Lobsters grow by molting, or in other-words by shedding their shells. Before shedding and leaving their old shell, they grow and soft and thin shell underneath. When the lobsters are molting, they release enzymes that soften the shell further as well as their joints. At this point, the lobster then squeezes out of its old shell while taking water in to expand their body size at the same time. The process of molting takes approximately 15 minutes and every time they molt they increase in size by 20%. At this point in time, it takes lobsters about 6 to 8 weeks for their shell to completely harden to the point where they can protect themselves. Immature lobsters, which are 5-7 years old, molt up to 25 times a year. Adult lobsters molt much less, males molt twice a year, while females only molt once. When lobsters are old they only molt once every 3-4 years. 

http://www.veganpeace.com/animal_facts/Lobsters.htm