Neolithodes asperrimus Barnard, 1947

Muñoz, Isabel & García-Isarch, Eva, 2013, New occurrences of lithodid crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Lithodidae) from the coasts of Africa, with the description of a new species of Paralomis White, 1856, Zootaxa 3670 (1), pp. 45-54 : 47

Neolithodes asperrimus Barnard, 1947

Neolithodes asperrimus Barnard, 1947: 374 ; Barnard, 1950: 411, figs. 77d–77f; Kensley, 1968: 287; Kensley, 1974: 64; Kensley, 1978 (in list); Kensley, 1981: 34 (in list); Macpherson, 1983: 5, figs. 1, 2; Macpherson, 1988a: 37, pls. 3, 4, figs 15D, 16; Macpherson, 1991: 404 (list); Ahyong, 2010: 73 (list); McLaughlin et al., 2010: 12 (list).

Material examined. Mauritania: MAURIT0811, stn 34, 16 °34.2'N, 17°04.3'E, 1399 m, 17.XI.2008, 1 male, 196 × 175 mm (IEO-CD-MR08/757); MAURIT0811, stn 4, 20 °44.9'N, 18°35.0'E, 1428 m, 18.XI.2008, 1 female, 182 × 176 mm (IEO-CD-MR08/758); MAURIT0811, stn 37, 17 °12.6'N, 17°16.5'E, 1685 m, 28.XI.2008, 1 male, 150 × 150 mm (IEO-CD-MR08/760).

Distribution. The species was previously reported off western Africa, from the Cape Peninsula, in South Africa to the Ivory Coast in the north in 600–2000 m depth (Macpherson 1988a). The specimens reported in Mauritanian waters increase the geographical distribution of the species significantly northward, extending the known northern limit of the species to 20°N.