Indian Freshwater Crab

The cru stacean Oecapoda comprises three groups, Macrura, Brachyura and \nAnomura. The freshwater crabs belong to two families, Plratelphusidae and \nPotalllonidae of the suborder Brachyura. The systematics and biology of freshwater \ncrabs of the various parts of the world were studied by a number of workers. \nAmong the several investigators the contributions of Alcock, Bott, Bishop, Crane, \nCalm<'ln, Fernando, Holthuis, Handerson, Pretzmann, Rathbun and Riek require \nspecial mention. Bott in a senes of papers described a number of species from \nEurope and Asia belonging to the two families of the freshwater crabs. Smalley \ngave all account of the north and south American river crabs. However, comparatively \nless work has been done on the Indian freshwater crabs. Chopra and Tiwari \ndesci ibed the freshwater decapod Crustacea of Patna and Orrisa. Pampathi Rao \nand his associates studied the effect of acclimatization to high temperature on the \nblood chloride, free amino acids and osmotic pressure in Paratelphusa sp. Agrawal \net al. studied the physiology of digestion and pharmacology of the heart of Potamon \nmartensi. \nA survey of the freshwater crabs of Marathwada region of Maharashtra State, India \nreveals that the crab, Barytelphusa cunicularis, belonging to the family \nparathelphusidae of the suborder Brachyur<'l appears to be abundant. It inhabits \nsmall bodies of water near Aurangabad and in the cultivated fields causing \nconsiderable damage to the crops. Since no detailed biological investigations had \nso far been made on any Indian freshwater crabs, the present efforts were made to \ndescril:1e the whole anatomy and histology of various organ systems of Barytelphusa \ncunicularis. \nAmong the crustacean fishery, crab fishery has gained considerable attention particularly \nthe biology and fishery of the crabs that are of economic importance. \nCrabs are caught round the year, However, the peak catch season shows a definite \nseasonal trend in commercially important crab landing areas. In most part of the \nIndian continent the peak season is generally from October to February. \nMost of the information so far available is only on marine crabs. On freshwater \ncrabs no much attention has been paid though potential for the development of \nfreshwater crab fishery and captive culture is good. \nThis book provides basic information on various organ system of freshwater crab \nand their structure in detail which we are sure will be quite useful to the professionals \nof fishery science to augement crab fishery and its products. \n(A. D. Diwan & K. K. Jain)