Diversity of Brachyuran Crabs of Kanyakumari Area, South West Coasts of India

Sruthi. S; Nansimole. A; Gayathri Devi. T.V; Tresa Radhakrishnan

Volume : III, Issue : XII, December - 2014

Diversity of Brachyuran Crabs of Kanyakumari Area, South West Coasts of India

Sruthi. S, Nansimole. A, Gayathri Devi. T. V, Tresa Radhakrishnan

Abstract :

Brachyuran crabs are the most diverse group of crustaceans. The infraorder Brachyura contains 6,793 species in 93 families as many as the remainder of the Decapoda. The achyuran crab diversity was studied from ten stations of Kanyakumari District (8.0780� N, 77.5410�E) of Tamil Nadu; south west coast of India, which recorded 40 species, 16 genera from 7 families during the study. Out of the seven the most diverse families are Portunidae and Leucosiidae. Out of 16 genera, Charybdis has 23 species under the family Portunidae.