Indian Freshwater Crab

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