Morphometric variation among the three species of genus acetes (Decapoda: Sergestidae) in the coastal waters of Malacca, Peninsular Malaysia

Small sergestid shrimps of the genus Acetes are locally known as ‘udang garagau’ which can be found along the coastal region of Malacca. A total of three species of the genus Acetes (namely, A. indicus, A. japonicus and A. intermedius) are found along the coastal waters of Malacca. The morphometric data of the three species were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and PRIMER software to examine the degree of similarity among the three species. All the morphometric characters, which include total length, carapace length, standard length, abdominal length, telson length, first antenular peduncle, second antenular peduncle, third antenular peduncle, eye length, eye wide, and eye diameter of the three species were significantly found to be different (P < 0.05). The dendrogram of both the male and female populations showed three major clusters indicating the three species of genus Acetes