First record of three giant marine Bathynomids (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) from India
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First record of three giant marine Bathynomids (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) from India Sankar R1 , Rajkumar M1,2 , SUN Jun2∗ , Gopalakrishnan A1 , Vasanthan T M1 , Ananthan G1 , Trilles J P3 1 2 3
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Parangipettai 608502, India Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China Equipe Adaptation Ecophysiologique et Ontogen`ese, Universit´e de Montpellier II, Montpellier 34095, France
Received 15 July 2009; accepted 21 June 2010 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
Abstract Three species, Bathynomus decemspinosus, B. doederleini and B. kensleyi (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae), are reported for the first time from the Parangipettai coastal waters, Southeast coast of India. Several Trilasmis (Temnaspis) tridens (Cirripedia Thoracica, Lepadomorpha) were attached to the pleopods of some individuals. So, five bathynomid species are currently reported from India. Key words: giant marine isopods, Bathynomus, first record, India
1 Introduction Bathynomids (Crustacea, Isopoda Cirolanidae), belonging to the “supergiants group” of isopods (Lowry and Dempsey, 2006), were for a long time conspicuous because of their big size (Barradas-Ortiz et al., 2003; Iwasaki et al., 2001; Tsukamoto et al., 2000; Soong and Mok, 1994; Perry and Hinsch, 1991; Tso and Mok, 1991; Wetzer, 1986). Bathynomus Milne Edwards, 1879, is one of the few isopod genera known from the fossil record (Karasawa and Nobuhara, 2008; Bruce and Bussarawit, 2004; Obata and Omori, 1993; Wieder and Feldmann, 1992; Karasawa et al., 1992; Anonymous, 1992; Wieder and Feldmann, 1989; Imiazumi, 1953). They are important scavengers in the deep-sea benthic environment, from the gloomy sublittoral zone at a depth of 170 m to the dark of the bathypelagic zone at 2 140 m (Cocke, 1987, 1986), often found between 365 m and 730 m (Holthuis and Mikulka, 1972). They prefer a muddy or clay substrate and they live alone. They are scavengers, carnivorous and active predators of fishes, crustaceans or squids, mostly diseased or injured (Barradas-Ortiz et al., 2003). When
caught in the net, they tear off meat from the captured fishes. They also feed on fishes caught in commercial trawl (Briones et al., 1991). They are able to endure periods of starvation, even over eight weeks in an aquarium. There are a number of species belonging to the genus Bathynomus, commonly distributed in the United States, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Philippines, Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Arabian Sea and Madagascar (Lowry and Dempsey, 2006; Bruce, 1986). While the Cirolanids occur in great abundance in both temperate and tropical waters, occurrence of the giant isopod is sporadic. In the present study, three bathynomid species are reported for the first time in India. 2 Materials and methods Several specimens of Bathynomus were collected in June 2008 by catch of deep benthic commercial trawling (mesh size–20 mm; type of boat–commercial trawler) at a d
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