Neolithodes
Genus of king crab
title: "Neolithodes" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["king-crabs", "taxa-named-by-eugène-louis-bouvier", "decapod-genera"] description: "Genus of king crab" topic_path: "general/king-crabs" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithodes" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Genus of king crab ::
| image = Expl0841 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg | image_caption = Neolithodes crab at the Davidson Seamount off California | taxon = Neolithodes | authority = A. Milne-Edwards & Bouvier, 1894 | type_species = Neolithodes grimaldii | type_species_authority = (A. Milne-Edwards & Bouvier, 1894)
Neolithodes is a genus of king crabs in the subfamily Lithodinae.
Description
Neolithodes has a pyriform carapace which does not cover the bases of its walking legs. Of its three pairs of walking legs, the rearmost are the longest, and all of them have a similar form. At the very front center of the carapace, its rostrum consists of a median spine and a pair of upward-slanted (dorsal) spines. Behind the rostrum sits the elevated gastric region, followed by a deep groove separating it from the triangular cardiac region. The cervical groove behind that is shallow and indistinct. When measuring the carapace's length without including the rostrum, the carapace is always shorter than the walking legs.
Its second abdominal segment consists of five plates: a median plate and paired submedian and marginal (outer) plates. As in all king crabs, males have a symmetrical abdomen, but females' abdomens are skewed – enlarged on the left side and reduced on the right. In males, the third through fifth abdominal segments are composed of spine-like nodules, while in females, these are composed of well-developed plates on the left and well-developed plates or simply spine-like nodules on the right. In front of the abdomen is a deep, logitudinal sternal fissure between the frontmost pair of walking legs; this fissure is also present in Lithodes and readily distinguishes the two genera from other king crabs.
Distribution
Although there are records from water as shallow as 70 m in cold regions, most records are much deeper, typically 700-2000 m. Neolithodes grimaldii has been reported to a depth of 5238 m.
Ecology
Various sessile organisms such as barnacles are sometimes attached to their carapace and legs, and small commensal amphipods may live in their carapace. They are occasionally the victims of parasitic snailfish of the genus Careproctus, which lay their egg mass in the gill chamber of the crab, forming a mobile "home" until they hatch. Conversely, some juvenile Neolithodes have a commensal relationship with Scotoplanes sea cucumbers. To protect itself from large predators, the young king crab hides under the sea cucumber.
Taxonomy
Neolithodes was described in 1894 by carcinologists Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Eugène Louis Bouvier. They initially placed the new species they found, Neolithodes grimaldii, in the closely related genus Lithodes, but they shortly thereafter constructed the genus Neolithodes based on the new species' distinctive abdomen, which they compared to the monotypic genus Dermaturus. The word Neolithodes derives from the Greek grc, meaning "new", and Lithodes. The name of the latter genus originates from the Latin lithodes, meaning "stone-like". No known Neolithodes fossils exist. Neolithodes relationship to other king crabs can be seen in the following cladogram:
Species
Neolithodes contains the following species:
::data[format=table]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [[File:Neolithodes_agassizii_(YPM_IZ_023851).jpeg | 120px]] | Neolithodes agassizii (Smith, 1882) | Western Atlantic | |
| Neolithodes asperrimus Barnard, 1947 | Rough stone crab | South Africa to Mauritania | ||
| [[File:Neolithodes brodiei posterior.jpg | 120px]] | Neolithodes brodiei Dawson & Yaldwyn, 1970 | Brodie's king crab | New Zealand and adjacent waters |
| [[File:Neolithodes bronwynae dorsal.jpg | 120px]] | Neolithodes bronwynae Ahyong, 2010 | Rock crab | Bay of Plenty, Lord Howe Rise, eastern Australia, possibly New Caledonia, Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain |
| [[File:Neolithodes capensis dorsal lithograph.png | 120px]] | Neolithodes capensis Stebbing, 1905 | Cape stone crab | Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean, Bellingshausen Sea |
| [[File:Neolithodes diomedeae dorsal MA I526478.jpg | 120px]] | Neolithodes diomedeae (Benedict, 1895) | Eastern Pacific, Southwestern Atlantic, Southern Ocean | |
| Neolithodes duhameli Macpherson, 2004 | Crozet Islands | |||
| [[File:Neolithodes flindersi.jpg | 120px]] | Neolithodes flindersi Ahyong, 2010 | Southeastern Australia | |
| [[File:Neolithodes_grimaldii_(YPM_IZ_036132).jpeg | 120px]] | Neolithodes grimaldii (Milne-Edwards & Bouvier, 1894) | Porcupine crab | North Atlantic |
| Neolithodes indicus Padate, Cubelio & Takeda, 2020 | Southeastern Arabian Sea | |||
| Neolithodes nipponensis Sakai, 1971 | Japanese spiny crab | Japan and Taiwan | ||
| Neolithodes vinogradovi Macpherson, 1988 | Arabian Sea to the Coral Sea | |||
| [[File:Neolithodes yaldwyni Palmer Deep ruler.jpg | 120px]] | Neolithodes yaldwyni Ahyong & Dawson, 2006 | Ross Sea | |
| :: |
Notes
References
Works cited
References
- Ahyong, Shane T.. (12 December 2023). "''Neolithodes'' A. Milne-Edwards & Bouvier, 1894".
- Ahyong, Shane T.. (18 February 2010). "''Neolithodes flindersi'', a new species of king crab from southeastern Australia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Lithodidae)". [[Zootaxa]].
- Macpherson, Enrique. (2001). "New species and new records of lithodid crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the southwestern and central Pacific Ocean". [[Zoosystema]].
- (2023). "Marine Decapod Crustacea: A Guide to Families and Genera of the World". CRC Press.
- (April 1997). "''Neolithodes grimaldii'' Milne Edwards & Bouvier 1894 (''Lithodes goodei'' Benedict 1895) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura) in Irish offshore waters". [[Irish Naturalists' Journal]].
- (May 1988). "Occurrence, Distribution, and Orientation of ''Poecilasma kaempferi'' Darwin (Cirripedia: Pedunculata) Epizoic on ''Neolithodes grimaldi'' Milne-edwards and Bouvier (Decapoda: Anomura) in the Northeast Atlantic". [[Journal of Crustacean Biology]].
- (31 December 2007). "Gammaropsis (Podoceropsis) grasslei (Amphipoda: Photidae) a new species of commensal amphipod of the deep-water lithodid Neolithodes diomedeae from the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California". [[Zootaxa]].
- (15 October 2016). "Symbiosis between the holothurian ''Scotoplanes'' sp. A and the lithodid crab ''Neolithodes diomedeae'' on a featureless bathyal sediment plain". Marine Ecology.
- (2017-07-05). "The origin of king crabs: hermit crab ancestry under the magnifying glass". [[Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society]].
- "Brodie's king crab (NEB)". Fisheries New Zealand.
- (19 December 2018). "Deep-sea survey of Australian marine parks reveals striking species". [[Mongabay]].
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