On the occurrence of Metapenaeus burkenroadi Kubo (Family : Penaeidae, Crustacea Decapoda) in Indian waters

The genus Metapenaeus is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific. The species comprising the genus appear to be highly confused and several closely allied species have been recorded in different groups like 'mastersii' group, 'affinis' group and ' monoceros' group. Metapenaeus burkenroadi is one of the species included in the ' mastersii' group. Kubo (1949) described it extensively under the name of M. affinis and later (1954) separated it to a new species giving the name M. burkenroadi based on specimens collected from Japanese waters. Racek (1957) supplemented these observations making use of 2 male and 2 female specimens from Japanese waters, giving comparisons with the other members of the ' mastersii' group, namely M. mastersii (Haswell) and M. chili Racek. The present observation of the occurrence of the species from the S.W. coast of India is the next record of the species and the first ever from outside Japanese waters. Hall (1961) synonymised the species with M. mastersii. However, Racek (personal communication) is not inclined to agree with him and is of opinion that M. mastersii is an endemic species restricted to Australia