Neolithodes

{{Short description|Genus of king crab}}

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{{Automatic taxobox

| 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.{{cite WoRMS|last=Ahyong|first=Shane T.|author-link=Shane T. Ahyong|date=12 December 2023|title=Neolithodes A. Milne-Edwards & Bouvier, 1894|id=106846|access-date=3 December 2024}} They are found in all major oceans, both in high and low latitudes. Although there are records from water as shallow as {{cvt|70|m|ft}} in cold regions, most records are much deeper, typically {{cvt|700-2000|m|ft|}}, with the deepest confirmed at {{cvt|5238|m|ft}}.{{Cite book|title=King Crabs of the World: Biology and Fisheries Management|publisher=CRC Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4398-5541-6|editor-last=Stevens|editor-first=Bradley G.|doi=10.1201/b16664|lccn=2013036692}}{{Page needed|date=May 2020}}{{Cite journal|last1=Quigley|first1=Declan T. G.|last2=Flannery|first2=Kevin|date=April 1997|title=Neolithodes grimaldii Milne Edwards & Bouvier 1894 (Lithodes goodei Benedict 1895) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura) in Irish offshore waters|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277142759|journal=Irish Naturalists' Journal|volume=25|issue=10|pages=373–374|jstor=25536085|via=ResearchGate|access-date=14 May 2020}}{{Cite journal|last=Ahyong|first=Shane T.|author-link=Shane T. Ahyong|date=18 February 2010|title=Neolithodes flindersi, a new species of king crab from southeastern Australia (Crustacea: Decapoda: Lithodidae)|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289804861|journal=Zootaxa|volume=2362|pages=55–62|doi=10.5281/zenodo.193654|via=ResearchGate|access-date=14 May 2020}}{{Cite journal|last=Macpherson|first=Enrique|date=2001|title=New species and new records of lithodid crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda) from the southwestern and central Pacific Ocean|url=https://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/12131/12131.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Zoosystema|volume=23|issue=4|pages=797–805|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813041713/https://decapoda.nhm.org/pdfs/12131/12131.pdf|archive-date=13 August 2017|via=the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County|access-date=14 May 2020}}{{Cite book |last1=Poore |first1=Gary C. B. |title=Marine Decapod Crustacea: A Guide to Families and Genera of the World |last2=Ahyong |first2=Shane T. |author-link2=Shane T. Ahyong |chapter=Anomura |pages=311–317 |publisher=CRC Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4863-1178-1}} They are fairly large to large crabs that typically are reddish in color and spiny, although the size of these spines varies depending on species (from long in species like N. grimaldii to very short in species like N. flindersi, and tending to be more pronounced in small than in large individuals).{{Cite web|title=Neolithodes grimaldii|url=http://www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/research_development/fdp/fdp_151.pdf|publisher=Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924013334/http://www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/research_development/fdp/fdp_151.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015|access-date=26 May 2019}}