SCIENTIFIC KESULTS OF EXPLORATIONS P.Y THE U. S. 

 FISH COMMISSION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 



[Published by permission of Hon. Marshall McDonald, Commissioner of Fisheries.] 



No. XXXI.— DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF CRABS OF 

 THE FAMILY LITHODID.^, WITH NOTES ON THE YOUNG OF LITHODES 

 CAMTSCHATICUS AND LITHODES BREVIPES. 



By James E. Benedict, 



Assistant Curator, Department of Marine Inrertetirates. 



Crustacea of the convenient suborder of Decni>o(l;i known as 

 Anonuini, from tlie North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, a region pro- 

 lific in rei»resentatives of this group, have been gradually accumulating 

 in the Museum. Recently large collections have been received from 

 the U. S. Fish Commission from dredgings made by the steamer Alba- 

 Iross in Bering Sea and on the voyage to and from that locality. In 

 these collections are many tine specimens of the family Lithodida', which 

 contains the largest of known crabs, with the exception of the giant 

 maioid crab of Jajian, Macrochcira kacmp/eri of de Ilaan. Though 

 the following descriptions and notes are based principally on Fish Com- 

 mission material from the above region, one species of Lithodes is 

 described from the North Atlantic and one from the South Pacific. 



LITHODES GOODEI, new species. 



Litliodes agassizii, Smith (part), Bull. Mus. Comp. ZooL, x, p. 8 (part), pi. i, figs. 

 2 and 2a, 1882; Proc. U. S.Nat. Mus., vi, 1883, p. 25 (part); Rept. Conir. of 

 Fish and Fisheries, 1882, p. 351 (1884); Rept. Comr. of Fish and Fisheries, 

 1885, p. 607 [3], p. 638 [34], pi. in, figs. 1 and 2 (1886).— Yerrill, Rept. 

 Comr. of Fish and Fisheries, 1883, pp. 521, 553 (part), pi. xxxiii, figs, 15lrt> 

 lolb (1887). 



Aw examination of the specimens of Lithodes taken by the Albatross 

 in deep water off the eastern coast of the United States, shows a wide 

 diflerence between those from south of Cape Hatteras and those from 

 more northern waters. The average range in depth of the northern 

 form is about 900 fathoms, of the southern 500 fathoms. The southern 

 form, Lithodes agassizii, was described by Prof. S. I. Smith from the 

 dredgings of the Blahe.* Prof. Smith also describes and figures in the 

 same place the young of the northern form as the young of X. agassizii. 



"Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoologj^, x, p. 8. 



Proceedings of the U. S. N.itioiial Museum. Vol. XVII— No. lOK!. 479 



