''Neolithodes agassizii'' is a species of
king crab native to the Western Atlantic which lives depths of .
Description
''Neolithodes agassizii'' has a pyrifrom
carapace
A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...
; the largest adult specimen when it was
described, a female, had a carapace measuring in
postrostral length and in width.
Whereas its carapace is about as wide as it is long in adults, this is closer to in juveniles.
The spines around the margins of its carapace are slightly larger than those on its dorsal surface, and between these marginal spines are
tubercle
In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal.
In plants
A tubercle is generally a wart-like projectio ...
s.
Its
rostrum
Rostrum may refer to:
* Any kind of a platform for a speaker:
**dais
**pulpit
** podium
* Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects
* Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...
is very short.
Its
chelipeds feature little spination and are similar in length, but the right is stouter than the left.
Its rear walking legs – the longest pair – are nearly three times as long as the carapace width, and all of its
dactyli are slightly curved and armed with small, sharp spines.
Its underside features a symmetrical
abdomen
The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...
in juveniles, but in adults, there is a noticeable asymmetry in the third, fourth, and fifth segments: the left side is well-developed at the expense of the right side.
Its second abdominal segment bears prominent spines.
Distribution
''Neolithodes agassizii'' is known from depths of .
and have been found as far south as
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, as far north as latitude 36°,
and near the
Equator
The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...
.
It has been found in the southwestern
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
as well as the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
.
See also
* ''
Neolithodes grimaldii
''Neolithodes grimaldii'', the porcupine crab, is a species of king crab. It is found in cold, deep waters in the North Atlantic, often caught as bycatch in fisheries for Greenland halibut (''Reinhardtius hippoglossoides''). As suggested by its ...
'', a species which small specimens of ''N. agassizii'' may be confused for
*''
Neolithodes indicus'', a species originally misidentified as ''N. agassizii''
References
External links
*
*
King crabs
Crustaceans described in 1882
Anomura of the Atlantic Ocean
Crustaceans of Brazil
Biota of the Gulf of Mexico
Crustaceans of the United States
Taxa named by Sidney Irving Smith
{{Anomura-stub