Distribution, abundance and diversity indices of portunid, swimming crabs from the coastal areas of Pakistan
2001
Takween, W. | Qureshi, N.A. (Karachi Univ. (Pakistan). Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology)
Portunid crabs along with other crabs constitute one of the dominant aqua-terrestrial fauna that play an important role in the food web in the near shore and off shore coastal areas and swamps as scavengers. Different species of portends appears to have variable distribution throughout the world. The specific objectives of this study were to study the distribution, abundance and diversity of different portunid crabs represented iii the landings through out the year. A total of 1461 portunid crabs were collected from which 1113 individuals belonged to the genus Portunus, 346 to Charybdis and only 2 to Thalamita. The percentage of the genus Portunus estimated from the total number of collected crabs was high during February, May & July (100, 93.06 & 95.95 %, respectively) and those of the genus Charybdis when estimated from the total number of crabs was observed only in April. The genus Portunus was represented by four species, while nine species of the genus Charybdis could be collected. The most abundant species in order of dominance were P. sanguinolentus, P. pelagicus and C. feriatus. Future potential of crab fishery in Pakistan has also been discussed.
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