Abstract
A new species of king crab (Lithodidae) is described from southeastern Australia, Neolithodes flindersi sp. nov. It is the twelfth known species of Neolithodes, the first to be described and the largest lithodid known from Australia. Neolithodes flindersi sp. nov. most closely resembles N. brodiei Dawson & Yaldwyn, 1970, from New Zealand and N. nipponensis Sakai, 1971, from Japan and Taiwan. The new species differs from N. nipponensis chiefly in being less prominently spinose: the secondary spines covering the surfaces of the walking legs are distinctly shorter, and the antennal peduncle is only sparsely granulate or spinulate, rather than prominently spinulate. Neolithodes flindersi sp. nov. is most easily distinguished from N. brodiei by patterns of spination: the ventral surfaces of the coxae of the walking legs in males and juvenile female N. flindersi sp. nov. are covered in short conical spines, rather than low, blunt tubercles as in N. brodiei, and the meral extensor spines of the walking legs are of similar size rather than markedly uneven. Two specimens of N. flindersi sp. nov. were collected on gorgonacean corals, representing the first records of a gorgonaceanlithodid association.References
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