New Record of Brachyuran Crabs from the Visakhapatnam Coast, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Crustaceans are a highly diverse group. In particular, the order Decapoda represents a highly diverse order of malacostracan crustaceans. There are 7620 brachyuran species from 104 genera present globally. In India, 910 marine brachyuran crabs are reported, belonging to 361 genera and 62 families. Andhra Pradesh shows typical habitat heterogeneity for Brachyuran crabs. A total of 121 brachyuran crabs have been reported from Andhra Pradesh. Two species of brachyuran crabs, one is Eucrate indica Castro & P.K.L. Ng, 2010 belonging to the family Euryplacidae Stimpson, 1871 and another is Liagore rubromaculata (De Haan, 1983) belonging to the family Xanthidae MacLeay, 1838 are reported here for the first time from the Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh, India. These crabs were collected from the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour in the trawl bycatch during the coral reef and reef-associated faunal survey in Andhra Pradesh. The morphological features, taxonomical systematic, colour and distribution of these crabs are discussed here.