Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-30

delicious luncheons, is relative of the but
terfy? The kinship is not merely that of
two members of the animal kingdom. The
lobster and the butterfly are actually in one
and the same great group of the kingdom,
like the clam and the snail, or the whale and
the giraffe, whose spheres of activity are SO
widely separated.
1t is patent even to unsklled observation
that there is close relationship between the
lobster and the crab; but it demands some
scientific knowledge to associate the tradl-
tional Broadway dainty with, for instance,
the beach fea which has helped to render
us uncomfortable at our favorite bathing re-
sort, or, more strikingly still, with the wood
louise. Yet all three are included in the SUBJ
division of crustacea known as the mala-
costraca, and from the crustacea to the other
subdivisions of the arthropods which in
clude butterflies, June bugs, and humble
bees, is not a prodigious step.
While, therefore, it may not be scientif
ically accurate to refer to the lobster as a
bug, that popular creature is actually much
more an insect than it is mollusc, like the
oyster with which it lives in close neighbour
illness, or than fish, like those which swim
about and frequently afford the lobster
meal. Will it destroy your taste for lob
sters to be reminded that they are first
cousins to the house fly?
1t is simply, as Darwin pointed out in the
case of other creatures great many years
ago, that the lobster and it's friends, the
crab, the prawn, and the shrimp, chose one
method of life, while the butterfly and its
set chose another. So the first crowd de-
veloped characteristics suited to the condi-
tions in which it lived, including as one of
the most important, since its members do
not move rapidly for great distances, coat
of armor to protect them from their in
Vulnerable enemies; while the butterflies
and the great host of other winged arthro-
pods shed every bit of superfuous weight,
trusting to swiftness to carry them out Of
danger, and to protective coloring to con-
ceal them when flight is unavailing.
nURING the last fifteen years our knowl-
= edge of the lobster has increased to such
an extent that at present there is probably
no marine invertebrate that is better known.
Primarily its Importance as food has in
spired the study into its life history. And,
although with all the research the price of
lobster has gone to high and sometimes
to a prohibitive level, there is reason to
believe that science has found the way of
restoring it to the reach of ordinary morta1s.
The Holsters case is the exact opposite of
the mosquitoes, another arthropod to which
science has gwen much study. On the one
hand multiplication is sought, and on the
other humiliation.
In the course of the research into the lob
ster's makeup and mode of living many curl
Gus facts have been revealed. Not many
years ago some well intentioned persons in
terested in the prevention of cruelty to ami
mails movement agitated against the manner
of preparing that delightful dish known as
brOiled live lobster 1t was argued that
hideous cruelty was involved in putting any
animal on hot grill when it was still alive.
In principle the argument was sound
enough; but there is comfort in remember
ing that the lobster is one of the most primi-
tive of animals in its nervous organization,
and its sufferings cannot therefore be meas
ured in terms of human understanding. It's
intelligence is limited to elemental instincts,
such as concealment from enemies, the
search for food, and the reproduction of
species 1t lacks wholly the sense of hear
ing in our meaning of the word, its vision is
dim, and its dependence in the struggle for
existence is on its sense of touch, which is
keen, and chemical sense of smell. 1t is
credited also with the possession of the fifth
sense, taste, which enables it to distinguish
between fresh food and foul, and to display
a preference for the former. It is the scav-
enger of the ocean floor only because it is
not equipped for catching all the living prey
it would like.
Anono the odd oroanc with which the