Crab biodiversity from Arukkattuthurai to Pasipattinam, south east coast of India

Coastal environment provides a greater range of habitats and thus potentially supports greater biodiversity. Before starting to produce seeds in a hatchery and culture them in ponds, thorough knowledge about their distribution in nature is important. So the present study is aimed to know the biodiversity of crabs from Arukkattuthurai to Pasipattinam. Totally 79 individual crab species were recorded belonging to 21 families from all 10 stations. Maximum crab species were recorded belonging to the family Portunidae than others families and also the maximum number of crab species 163 were recorded in Mallipattinam (station5) and minimum 69 species in Pasipattinam (station10). Occurrence of crab species in different stations were in the following order; Mallipattinam (163) > Sethubavachatram (161) > Manamelkudi (127) > Pointcalimere (117) > Muthupettai (116) > Jegathapattinam (110) > Kattumavadi (101) > Arukkattuthurai (92) > Adirampattinam (85) > Pasipattinam (69). Crabs were collected plenty during summer and monsoon than pre-monsoon and post-monsoon. The crabs belonging to families viz., Calappidae, Portunidae, Potamidae, Grapsidae, Sesarmidae and Ocypodidae were obtained almost all seasons.