LITHODIDAE SAMOUELLE, 1819

Martin, Joel W. & Haney, Todd A., 2005, Decapod crustaceans from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps: a review through 2005, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (4), pp. 445-522 : 482

FAMILY LITHODIDAE SAMOUELLE, 1819

Remarks: Chevaldonné & Olu (1996), in their review of anomurans from vents and seeps and citing Suess et al. (1985) and Kulm et al. (1986), noted that the first record of any lithodid from such habitats was an illustration of what was clearly a lithodid in a sketch of the cold-seep community along the lower Oregonian Subduction Zone ( Suess et al., 1985: fig. 1; see Kulm et al., 1986, for map). From this same area but at slightly shallower depths, Carey et al. (1988) later reported Lopholithodes foraminatus , but it is not known if the earlier observations were of this same species. Tunnicliffe & Jensen (1987) noted that the earlier illustration might have been based on a species of Paralomis found by them at vents in the Juan de Fuca Ridge system (see below). Chevaldonné & Olu (1996) listed ‘two species and six occurrences not yet clearly assigned to species’. The situation has not changed appreciably since then (see below), and the review by Chevaldonné & Olu (1996) remains a well-written and succinct introduction to the literature on vent- and seep-associated lithodids. According to those authors, cold-seep lithodids are known from 250 to 2037 m depths, with one personal observation (M. Sibuet) of a depth of 3800 m in the Nankai Trough of the Japan subduction zone, whereas hydrothermal vent-associated lithodids are known from 350–2000 m. Many reports exist of unidentified lithodids at vent or seep sites (in some cases, such as the paper by Sassen et al., 1993, the species was later identified). Interestingly, despite their wide depth and geographical range, lithodids have not been reported from any of the EPR, Galapagos Rift (with the possible exception of a report by Guinot & Macpherson, 1987) or MAR systems ( Chevaldonné & Olu, 1996).

Species belonging to this large and widespread family are assumed to be vagrants as opposed to vent- or seep-endemics, even though some are known only from such sites (see below and also Chevaldonné & Olu (1996). Macpherson (1988) provided an in-depth revision and review of all known Atlantic species of this family; see Macpherson (2001) for a brief overview of the family in the Indo-Pacific.