501 B 
UNITED STATES 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
Fish and Wildlife Service 
Fishery Technological Laboratory 
2725 Montlake Boulevard 
Seattle, ’Washington 
February 28, 1942. 
AIR MAH 
Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, Curator, 
Division of Marine Invertebrates, 
Smithsonian Institution, 
United States National Museum, 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Dr. Schmitt: 
A question of proper terminology has come up on which we would 
greatly appreciate your advise, namely whether the name "king crab" 
would be more properly applied to the whole genus Paralithodes and 
allowed to include Paralithodes camtschatica , Paralithodes platypus , 
and Paralithodes brevipes or would be better restricted to the 
single species Paralithodes camtschatica . 
Marukawa isn’t much help since he titles his article "Biological 
and Fishery Research on Japanese Ring Crab Paralithodes camtschatica 
(Tilesius ) " and then on the same page says "The king crab , Paralithodes, 
is distributed . It is divided into three species, viz Parali- 
thodes camtschatica (Tilesius ) , Paralithodes platypus Brandt , and 
Paralithodes brevipes Brandt ," and on the nest page, "The former two 
species are packed in cans for sale as Japanese crab meat, while 
Paralithodes brevipes is not used for this purpose." 
Hopkinson (U. S. Tariff Commission Report to the President, 
Report $14:7, Second Series - Crab Meat 1941) specifically limits 
"king crab" to Paralithodes camtschatica . On page 35 he lists the 
principal species of crabs used for the production of meat and 
includes : 
"5. King or deep sea crabs ( Paralithodes camtschatica ). 
"7. 'Hanasaki crabs' ( Paralithodes brevipes ) and ’Abura-Gani’ 
crabs ( Paralithodes platypus ) , relatively unimportant species, 
belonging to the same family as the king crab but somewhat smaller 
