Paralomis multispina ( Benedict, 1895 )

Wicksten, Mary K., 2012, Decapod Crustacea of the Californian and Oregonian Zoogeographic Provinces 3371, Zootaxa 3371, pp. 1-307 : 170

Paralomis multispina ( Benedict, 1895)

( Fig. 39I, Pl. 6A)

Leptolithodes multispinus Benedict, 1895: 484 . — Rathbun 1904: 165.

Paralomis multispina . — Bouvier 1896: 25. — Schmitt 1921: 159, pl. 23, pl. 30, figs. 7, 8. — Goodwin 1952: 176, fig. 8. — Makarov 1962: 257, fig. 102. — Pereyra & Alton 1972: 450. — Wicksten 1980c: 364; 1982: 245; 1989b: 314. — Hart 1982: 88, fig. 28. — Dawson 1989: 318. — Hendrickx & Harvey 1999: 374. — Martin & Haney 2005: 450 . — Hall & Thatje 2010: 504 , fig. 7.

Diagnosis. Carapace about as long as wide, dorsal surface, lateral margins with numerous spines: stout, sharptipped, conical in adult, short, blunt in juvenile with carapace width of 30 mm or less. Rostrum with simple median spine, two basal spines. Chelipeds unequal, slender, with prominent spines on carpus. Pereopods 2–4 elongate, cylindrical, thickly set with spines. Female abdomen twisted to right. Carapace length 80 mm.

Color in life. Body red to pale pink, spines dark red. The color notes are from a crab taken in a trap off southern California.

Habitat and depth. Muddy continental slope, 1100–1577 m. The crab has been found near cold seeps off Japan.

Range. Sagami Bay , Japan; Shumagin Bank, Alaska to off Guadalupe I., Baja California; off Carmen I., Gulf of California. Type locality off Queen Charlotte Is .

Remarks. This large crab has been fished commercially by trapping. The caprellid amphipod Caprella ungulina Mayer, 1903 ; clings to the legs of this crab (Wicksten 1982). Hall & Thatje (2010) demonstrated ontogenetic changes in the morphology of crabs of the genus Paralomis , including this species. Juveniles have much shorter dorsal carapace spines than do adults.