New Records of Two Deep-Sea Crabs of the Family Lithodidae Samouelle, 1819 (Crustacea: Decapoda) in the Southwestern Atlantic

Abstract

Species in the family Lithodidae Samouelle, 1819 are benthic and occurring mostly on muddy substrates of continental and insular slopes in cold waters worldwide. The 28 lithodid species presently recorded from the Atlantic Ocean: seven species of Lithodes Latreille, 1806, five of Neolithodes A. Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, 1894 and 16 of Paralomis White, 1856. Four species are occuring off Brazil, Lithodes manningi Macpherson, 1988 and Lithodes confundens Macpherson, 1988 are the only two species of the genus reported from Brazilian waters, between the states of Bahia and Santa Catarina, while Neolithodes only has two species recorded from Brazil, Neolithodes agassizii (Smith, 1882) from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro, and N. aff. Asperrimus Barnard, 1947 from the state of Santa Catarina. Here we report Lithodes manningi Macpherson, 1988 and Neolithodes agassizii (Smith, 1882) from the Potiguar Basin off northeastern Brazil.