T. Vaitheeswaran

Assistant General Manager, Research and Development, Quality Control, New Drug Discovery, Marine Invertebrate Division, Cancer Drugs, Rarbio Energies Private Limited, Tamil Nadu, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 43   doi: 10.5376/ija.2015.05.0043
Received: 01 Oct., 2015    Accepted: 12 Nov., 2015    Published: 22 Apr., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Vaitheeswaran T., 2015, Note on the Genus Munida Leach, 1820, and Description of Munida Curvipes Benedict, 1902 (Crustaea: Decapoda: Galatheidae), off Thoothukudi Coast of Gulf of Mannar, India (08º 35’ 22.5” N lat. 78º 27’ 40.9” E long and 08º 31’ 91.2” N lat. 78º 25’ 32.7”E) (310 M), International Journal of Aquaculture, 5(43): 1-5 

The squat lobster; Munida curvipes Benedict, 1902 was recorded for the first time from the Indian main land coast while investigating the biodiversity of the squat lobster of Gulf of Mannar during December, 2013. One specimen of the said species was collected as an incidental catch in the deep sea trawl fisheries off Thoothukudi coast of Gulf of Mannar, between 08º 35’ 22.5” N lat. 78º 27’ 40.9” E long and 08º 31’ 91.2” N lat. 78º 25’ 32.7”E long at a depth of 305-310 m. The present records show its extended distribution from Gulf of Mannar to east of Andamans and further to South Pacific Ocean, Chile. The total number of squat lobsters from India now rose to 52. These results point up the high diversity of this genus in the region and the importance of several characters in species identification (e.g., size and number of lateral spines on the carapace, ornamentation of the thoracic sternites, and size of antennular and antennal spines, colour pattern).

Munida curvipes; Munididae; Thoothukudi coast; Gulf of Mannar