Deep-water brachyura from the surveys of the FORV Sagar Sampada off the Andaman and Nicobar archipelagos, India

Abstract

The deep-water decapod crustacean fauna of the Andaman Sea is interesting in that it has zoogeographical affinities with those of the Indian and western Pacific fauna. The present study reports 17 brachyuran species from 11 families and 17 genera collected by the Indian Fishery Oceanography Research Vessel Sagar Sampada during five separate cruises from 2010–2017. Of these, Homolochunia valdiviae Doflein, 1904 (previously known from East Africa, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros and Moluccas) and Dairoides seafdeci Takeda & Ananpongsuk, 1991 (previously only known from Thailand) are new records for the Indian EEZ. In addition, Parilia pattersoni Ng, Devi & Kumar, 2018, described from the western part of the Bay of Bengal, is recorded for the first time from the Andaman Sea as well as Arabian Sea. The taxonomy of Dicranodromia baffini (Alcock and Anderson, 1899), Paromolopsis boasi Wood-Mason in Wood-Mason and Alcock, 1891, Arcania undecimspinosa De Haan, 1841, Platymaia alcocki Rathbun, 1918 and Carcinoplax indica Doflein, 1904 is discussed in detail.