In winter and spring these animals keep
in near to land, in summer they keep in deep water; thus at various
times seeking respectively for warmth or coolness.
The so-called arctus or bear-crab lays its eggs at about the
same time as the crawfish; and consequently in winter and in the
spring-time, before laying their eggs, they are at their best, and
after laying at their worst.
They cast their shell in the spring-time (just as serpents
shed their so-called 'old-age' or slough), both directly after birth
and in later life; this is true both of crabs and crawfish. And, by
the way, all crawfish are long lived.
18
Molluscs, after pairing and copulation, lay a white spawn; and
this spawn, as in the case of the testacean, gets granular in time.
The octopus discharges into its hole, or into a potsherd or into any
similar cavity, a structure resembling the tendrils of a young vine or
the fruit of the white poplar, as has been previously observed. The
eggs, when the female has laid them, are clustered round the sides
of the hole. They are so numerous that, if they be removed they
suffice to fill a vessel much larger than the animal's body in which
they were contained.
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