''Neolithodes grimaldii'', the porcupine crab, is a species of

king crab King crabs are a taxon of decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab (''Paralithodes camtsch ...

in the family

Lithodidae King crabs are a taxon of decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab (''Paralithodes camtscha ...

. This large red crab is found in cold deep waters in the North Atlantic and often caught as a bycatch in fisheries for

Greenland turbot The Greenland halibut or Greenland turbot (''Reinhardtius hippoglossoides'') belongs to the family Pleuronectidae (the right-eye flounders), and is the only species of the genus ''Reinhardtius''. It is a predatory fish that mostly ranges at dep ...

(Greenland halibut). As suggested by its common name, the carapace and legs are covered in long spines.

Distribution and habitat

The porcupine crab is found on muddy bottoms on the

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margin ...

in deep waters of the North Atlantic. In the western Atlantic, it ranges from eastern Canada and Greenland south as far as

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

in the United States. In the eastern Atlantic, it ranges from

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

to Madeira, Portugal and Cape Verde, including the

Porcupine Seabight The Porcupine Seabight or Porcupine Basin is a deep-water oceanic basin located on the continental margin in the northeastern portion of the Atlantic Ocean. It can be found in the southwestern offshore portion of Ireland and is part of a series o ...

and

Rockall Trough The Rockall Trough ( gd, Clais Sgeir Rocail) is a deep-water bathymetric feature to the northwest of Scotland and Ireland, running roughly from southwest to northeast, flanked on the north by the Rockall Plateau and to the south by the Porc ...

off Ireland. It has been recorded at depths of , but mostly at in water that is about . Exceptionally, living singles have been caught in very shallow water, likely the result of turning icebergs suddenly forcing them up from the deep. Based on radio tagging, some individuals will stay in a region for months, but others may move quite long distances.

Appearance

This deep red crab is covered in spines, which are long and robust in large adults, and very long and thin in young. It has a carapace length ("nose" to "rump") that is up to , a leg span up to and can weigh as much as . Females are somewhat smaller than males; in a study off Canada average carapace length for healthy adults was about for females and males respectively. They are often victims of ''Briarosaccus callosus'' (family

Peltogastridae The Peltogastridae are a family of barnacles belonging to the bizarre parasitic and highly apomorphic infraclass Rhizocephala Rhizocephala are derived barnacles that parasitise mostly decapod crustaceans, but can also infest Peracarida, manti ...

), a

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

barnacle that causes sterility in the crab and also will use many other

species around the world as a host. In the porcupine crab, males infected by this barnacle average somewhat smaller than healthy males, while infected females average somewhat larger than healthy females.

Fishing

Fisheries for

(Greenland halibut) can have porcupine crabs as a bycatch, sometimes in large quantities; in 1996 alone several hundred thousand tonnes were caught off Canada. Despite this, the porcupine crab has not been targeted by fisheries because of the great depth it inhabits (unlike several other large king crab species that typically inhabit shallower depths and are heavily targeted by fisheries). It is, however, considered to have potential as a future fishing resource. As long as the porcupine crab is not injured during capture and release from the bottom gillnet, they have a high survival rate.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4467325 King crabs Crustaceans described in 1894 Crabs of the Atlantic Ocean Taxa named by Alphonse Milne-Edwards Taxa named by Eugène Louis Bouvier