[5][1] Neolithodes brodiei is deep-red in colour and has numerous small spinules on its pereiopods and carapace as well as major spines scattered throughout its dorsal surface.

[4] Neolithodes brodiei lacks a known presence beyond depths of about 1,200 m (3,900 ft), meaning its distribution is likely bounded by the extent of the continental slope around New Zealand.

[4] It has allegedly been found in the Haima cold seeps in the northwestern South China Sea at depths of approximately 1,300–1,400 metres (4,300–4,600 ft), but it may only occasionally visit the ecosystem.

[4] Likewise, a 2005 paper in Polar Biology claimed to have found four specimens off the Balleny Islands in the Southern Ocean,[8] but these were misidentified and were later determined to be a new species called Neolithodes yaldwyni.

[4] "Neolithodes" is derived from Greek and Latin and means "new stone-crab",[9] while "brodiei" takes its namesake from James William Brodie, then-Director of the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute.