MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE CRAB, ATERGATIS INTEGERRIMUS (LAMARCK, 1818) (DECAPODA, BRACHYURA, XANTHIDEA)

The present paper envisages the relative growth of the xanthid crab, Atergatis integerrimus, collected (a sum of 256 crabs) from the benthic regions of Muttom. Allometry of the crabs were obtained for carapace length (CL) and width (CW), chelipede, propodus length (CPL), abdomen width in females (AW) and gonopod length (GL) in males. The size of the crabs (CW) ranged from 7-10.5 cm and 8.3-12.2 cm for males and females respectively. The AW grew in positive allometry: higher in juveniles (b=2.88) than adults (b=1.07). In males, the gonopod as well as the propodus length of the chelae showed positive allometry for juveniles while negative for adults. CPL vs CW demonstrated positive allometry to males and negative to females. The relationship between GL and CW based on the equation Y = aXb, revealed that the males reached their sexual maturity ~7 cm for CW. The females arrived their sexual maturity at 8.3 cm based on the relationship of AW and CW