Species Metapenaeus kutchensis

Metapenaeus kutchensis George, George and Rao, 1963 is a commercially important penaeid prawn, endemic to the Gujarat coast of India (George et al., 1963). The dominant species reported from the commercial catches of the Gulf of Kutchch region till 1963 was Metapenaeus monoceros (Srivatsa, 1953; Lakumb, 1960 and Ramamurthy, 1963a). On a detailed scrutiny of the characteristics, it was found that although the species possesses certain characters of M. monoceros, it reveals several striking features that are not shared with other species. Since the characteristics of this species do not correspond with those of any other species described so far, the species was described as a new species of the genus Metapenaeus