Neolithodes
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 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 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.