Ecdysis appears to be an exhausting experience and when the female is finished she has no skeletal support and flops around trying to stand up. After another half-hour, the lobster is able to support herself on her legs, largely through the support of a temporary hydrostatic skeleton. At this point, she approaches the male, who has been standing inches away, looking on, and pleopod fanning furiously. She then slowly turns so that her abdomen faces him. Atema, J., S. Jacobson, E. Karnofsky, S. Oleszko-Szuts, and L. Stein.
Cohabitation ends when the female leaves the dominant male's shelter for the last time.
There is no evidence indicating that she is kicked out. Apparently, she leaves when she is ready. She then takes up residency alone in a new shelter where she stays while her shell hardens completely, which takes two months in the warm summer waters, but much longer in colder regions and during winter months. When her shell has calcified sufficiently, the female extrudes eggs, the number of which is related to her size, and broods them on her pleopods for a nine to twelve month gestation period. Meanwhile, the male shelter continues to be an active place.