Indian Journal of Geo Marine Sciences Vol. 46 (05), May 2017, pp. 982-985 First report of a deep sea spider crab, Encephaloides armstrongi Wood- Mason and Alcock, 1891 from Gujarat waters of India Gyanaranjan Dash*, Mohammed Koya K. & Nayan P. Makwana Veraval Regional Centre of CMFRI, Matsya Bhavan, Bhidia, Veraval: 362 269, Gujarat, India *[E-mail:
[email protected]/
[email protected]] Received 17 September 2014 ; revised 14 January 2015 A single specimen of the male crab (3.0 cm carapace length and 3.8 g body weight) was collected from the incidental catch sample of a multiday trawler operating at a depth range of 107-132 m off Gujarat coast of India. The detailed morphometric measurements and diagnostic features with updated systematics have been presented in this paper. The crab has well devolved branchial region and thrive in the oxygen minimum zone of the sea. [Keywords: Deep sea spider crab, Encephaloides armstrongi, Veraval, Gujarat] Introduction Materials and Methods Crabs are one of the benthic crustacean faunas The present crab specimen was collected from and are exploited by fishing vessels mostly as a multiday trawler operating in a depth range of incidental catch targeting valuable shrimp stocks 30-135 m off Veraval coast of Gujarat, India. The of the coast. The species described here is Veraval Regional Centre of Central Marine identified as Encephaloides armstrongi and Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) is belongs to the family ‘Inachidae’. Earlier known continuously collecting information about the distribution of the crab is shown in Figure 1. The spatial and temporal distribution of fishery crab was reported for the first time from Bay of resources with the help of commercial fishing Bengal in the north-east Indian Ocean1.