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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication An annotated checklist of sea slug fauna of Gujarat coast, India Piyush Vadher, Hitesh Kardani & Imtyaz Beleem 26 May 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 8 | Pages: 15835–15851 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5278.12.8.15835-15851 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. 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Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2020 | 12(8): 15835–15851 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5278.12.8.15835-15851 #5278 | Received 27 July 2019 | Final received 14 April 2020 | Finally accepted 06 May 2020 C o Complete correspondence address and affiliation of all the authors along with the Pin code: m Affiliations An annotated checklist of sea slug fauna of Gujarat coast, India m u Imtiyaz Beleem3 (Replace affiliation with this one) n Piyush Vadher 1 , Hitesh Kardani 2 & Imtyaz Beleem 3 i 3 Office of the Superintendent of Fisheries (Commissioner of Fisheries, Agriculture, Farmer Welfare and Co-operation Department), Mangrol c a harbour, Mangrol,1,2 Junagadh, Fisheries Gujarat,Research 362226, Staton, India Junagadh. Agricultural University, Sikka, Jamnagar, Gujarat 361140, India. t 3 Ofce of the Superintendent of Fisheries (Commissioner of Fisheries, Agriculture, Farmer Welfare and Co-operaton Department), i Mangrol harbour, Mangrol, Junagadh, Gujarat, 362226, India. o Local language 1 [email protected]: (Replace abstract with, 2 [email protected] this one) (corresponding author), 3 [email protected] n વષ# ૨૦૧૪ થી ૨૦૧૯ દરિમયાન દરીયાિકનારે કરાયેલ 5ે6ીય અવલોકનો તેમજ પુવ# =કાિશત સાિહAયને આધારે ગજુ રાતના દરીયાકાંઠાના Abstract: An annotated checklist of sea slugs from Gujarat coastal waters was prepared, based on published literature and feld observatons fromિવGત ા2014–2019.રમાંથી સમુH ી Ninety-fveગોકળગાયન speciesી સુિચત from યાદ ી62 ત ૈયgeneraાર કર વbelongingામાં આવ ેલto. 29૨૯ familiesકુળમાન ીwere ૬૨ Mrecorded.િતની ૯૫ Species=Mિત areનોંધ વlistedામા આwithવેલ synonyms છે. =Mિ તandની distributonિવGતરણ િGથ status.તી અ ન ે સમાનાથQ નામોની યાદી સામેલ છે. Keywords: Distributon, Gastropoda, Opisthobranch. વષ # ૨૦૧૪ થી ૨૦૧૯ દરિમયાન દરીયાિકનાર ે કરાયેલ 5ે6ીય અવલોકનો તમે જ પવુ # =કાિશત સાિહAયન ે આધાર ે ગજુ રાતના દરીયાકાંઠાના િવGતારમાંથી સમુHી ગોકળગાયની સુિચત યાદી તૈયાર કરવામા ં આવેલ. ૨૯ કુળમાની ૬૨ Mિતની ૯૫ =Mિત નોધં વામા આવલે છે. =Mિતની િવGતરણ િGથતી અન ે સમાનાથQ નામોની યાદી સામેલ છે. વષ# ૨૦૧૪ થી ૨૦૧૯ દરિમયાન દરીયાિકનાર ે કરાયેલ 5ે6ીય અવલોકનો તેમજ પુવ# =કાિશત સાિહAયને આધાર ે ગજુ રાતના દરીયાકાંઠાના િવGતારમાંથી સમુHી ગોકળગાયની સુિચત યાદી તૈયાર કરવામાં આવેલ. ૨૯ કુળમાની ૬૨ Mિતની ૯૫ =Mિત નોધં વામા આવેલ છે. =Mિતની િવGતરણ િGથતી અને સમાનાથQ નામોની યાદી સામેલ છે. Editor: A. Biju Kumar, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India. Date of publicaton: 26 May 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Vadher, P., H. Kardani & I. Beleem (2020). An annotated checklist of sea slug fauna of Gujarat coast, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(8): 15835–15851. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5278.12.8.15835-15851 Copyright: © Vadher et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Piyush Vadher is working as senior research fellow in Fisheries Research Staton, JAU, Sikka. He has been involved in the research since 2014. He has been engaged in the survey, breeding and larval rearing of Pearl oyster and other molluscan and plankton culture. Hitesh Kardani is working as Assistant Professor in Fisheries Research Staton, JAU, Sikka. He is involved in teaching and research since 2005. His area of interest is plankton, molluscan, crustacean and Ichthyofaunal diversity. He has been engaged in captve breeding of marine molluscan and their conservaton by sea ranching of their larvae. Imtiyaz Beleem is working as Assistant Superintendent of Fisheries, in the Ofce of the Superintendent of Fisheries, Mangrol, Gujarat. He has been engaged in the research and academics since 2012 and main interest of research area is crustacean taxonomy and Marine ecology. Author contributon: PV—survey, photography and identfcaton of sea slugs and preparaton of the draf of paper. HK—survey, photography and identfcaton of sea slugs and preparaton of the draf of paper; IB—survey, preparaton of the manuscript. Acknowledgements: We are thankful to Dr A.R. Pathak (hon. vice chancellor, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh) and Dr. V.P. Chovata (director of research, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh) for providing necessary facilites and encouragement. We are also thankful to the ofcials of Marine Natonal Park, Jamnagar for providing their moral support and guidance. 15835 J TT Sea slugs of Gujarat coast Vadher et al. INTRODUCTION mangroves, coral reefs, rocky shores, mudfats, sandy shores, seagrasses, and seaweeds, contributng to a high Sea slugs are one of the largest groups of marine degree of marine faunal and foral diversity. The coast is gastropods. They show a wide range of colors, designs, divided into three areas: the Gulf of Kachchh, Saurashtra and paterns, including varietes of body decoratons coast, and the Gulf of Khambhat (Beleem et al. 2019). such as faps, sensory organs, tubercles, and tentacles The Gulf of Kachchh is a large inlet of the Arabian sea (Wagele & Klussmann-Kolb 2005). They are found that tapers towards the north-east and contains a Marine from the polar regions to the tropics in habitats ranging Natonal Park and Sanctuary with 42 islands where coral from intertdal (coral reefs, mudfats, rocky shores, reef and mangrove ecosystems support a high level of and tde pools) to deep sea, and in associaton with faunal diversity (Apte et al. 2010). bryozoans, hydroids, sponges, seagrasses, and seaweeds The Saurashtra coast is a locale for industry, harbors, (Wollscheid-Lengeling et al. 2001; Apte & Desai fsheries, and tourism. The area is comprised of rocky 2017). Sea slugs possess a variety of predator defense fats, and muddy & sandy supratdal zones. The rocky mechanisms that include autotomizing organs, chemical coast has various substrata including zoanthid zones, & ink secreton, cryptcism, camoufage, and deimatc coral patches, and intertdal pools & puddles, which displays (Wollscheid-Lengeling et al. 2001; Apte & Desai, sustain unique species diversity. The Gulf of Khambhat 2017). is about 200km long, and 20km wide in the north and There are approximately 6,000 species of sea slugs up to 70km wide in the south. The Narmada, Tapi, (Wagele et al. 2008), of which about half have been Mahi, and Sabarmat rivers drain into the gulf to form described from the Indo-Pacifc region (Gosliner et al. the estuary. Khambhat comprises mudfats, muddy- 2015). Recently, Apte & Desai (2017) documented 361 sandy zones, rocky patches and sandy supratdal zone. species from India, with the Andaman & Nicobar Islands The intertdal zone of Khambhat has sparsely scatered possessing the greatest diversity (273 species), followed mangrove patches of Avicennia marina. This unique by the western coast of India (121 species), Lakshadweep habitat supports several marine species. Islands (106 species), and the eastern coast of India (75 The authors carried out extensive feldwork in these species). coastal areas of Gujarat from 2014 to 2019. A majority In Gujarat, Hornell was the frst to collect sea slugs of specimens collected are deposited in the Museum from the Kathiawar coast, which were identfed by Eliot of Fisheries Research Staton, Junagadh Agricultural (Eliot 1909; Hornell 1909). Subsequent reports were University, Sikka. An annotated checklist was prepared made by Gideon et al. (1957), Menon et al. (1961), based on available literature (Table 1). Scientfc names, Narayanan (1969, 1970, 1971), Burn (1970), Burn & synonyms and current status were validated and Narayanan (1970), Rudman (1973, 1980, 1983), Rao & confrmed with the WoRMS (World Register of Marine Rao (1980), Rao (2003), Raghunathan et al. (2004, 2016), Species, 2019) database for current taxonomic status Rao et al. (2004), Rao & Sastry (2005), Apte et.