First distributional record of Carupella banlaensis from India

Abstract

The present study describes a new record of the rare portunid crab Carupella banlaensis from Goa, along the central west coast of India, based on carapace and appendage morphology and provides detailed morphometric measurements of two immature female specimens. Carupella banlaensis differs from its congeners in possessing less prominent median and lateral frontal lobes, the first eight anterolateral teeth alternating large and small and bluntly triangular, the cheliped merus with three large spines on the anterior margin and one distal spine on the posterior margin. Previously known only from the Gulf of Tonkin (China) and Somalia, the present observation of this crab is a new record for the entire South Asian region.