Records of the Zoological Survey of India - A Journal of Indian Zoology

Seepana Rajendra ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair-744 102, A & N Islands, IN

Abstract

One specimen each from Rutland Island and Great Nicobar Island has been identified as Echidna Polyzona (Richardson, 1845), a member of the Moray eel family Muraenidae. Systematic account for the species and distribution of moray eels in India are discussed. The present report forms the first record of Echidna polyzona from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Keywords

New Record, Moray Eel, Echidna, Muraenidae, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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Seepana Rajendra ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair-744 102, A & N Islands, IN

Abstract

Two species of Alcyonacean corals Lobophytum venustum Tixier-Durivault, 1957 and L. rotundum Tixier-Durivault, 1957 were collected from Andaman Islands, which are reported as new records to Indian waters. Detailed descriptions with morphological features, sclerites structures and images are provided.

Keywords

New Records, Soft Corals, Lobophytum, Sclerites, Andaman Islands, India.

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S. Kumaralingam ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair – 744 102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN

Abstract

The infraorder Caridea is the major shrimp group in the world, containing almost 2,800 described species with estimates of twice that number of species yet to be exposed and described. They occur in all of the world's oceans, the Caridean shrimp reach their maximum level of species and generic diversification in the Indo-Pacific. In the tropical marine environment a lot of small species have evolved with specialized lifestyles, living commensally on and within a sort of species of sponges, corals, echinoderms, sea anemones. The exoskeletons of many carideans are totally transparent, particularly with juveniles or very tiny species, yet there are species that are very colorful.

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C. Raghunathan ¹, Smitanjali Choudhury ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Port Blair – 744102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN

Abstract

Two species of actiniarian sea anemones Actinodendron arboreum (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833) and Diadumene leucolena (Verrill, 1866) under the families Actinodendronidae and Diadumenidae respectively were recorded as new addition of sea anemone fauna to India from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Earlier literature indicated that the occurrence of A. arboreum from Asia-Pacific region while D. leucolena known from east and west coast of North America. The diagnostic features of the presently recorded species along with distributional details are provided.

Keywords

Sea Anemone, Actinodendron arboreum and Diadumene leucolena, New Records, Andaman.

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S. Kumaralingam ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹, K. Venkataraman ²

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair-744102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN
2 Zoological Survey of India, Prani Vigyan Bhawan, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700053, IN

Abstract

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is located in Bay of Bengal with an area of 8269 km². Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprised of 572 islands spread in a linear distance of nearly 800 kms. These undulating islands are covered with dense forests and an endless variety of exotic flora and fauna between Burma and Indonesia. Andaman and Nicobar Islands are recently recognized as a world-class eco-tourist destination to discover the underwater treasures of marine life. Malacostraca includes most of the large and familiar crustaceans such as crabs, shrimps, lobsters, crayfish, isopods, amphipods and others. Primitively the trunk of malacostraca consists of 15 segments, eight in the thorax and seven in the abdomen but in most recent species the abdomen has only six segments. Decapoda, the largest and most familiar crustaceans with 10,000 species of crabs, shrimps, crayfishes, lobsters, and their relatives. Like the shrimps and lobsters, crabs belong to the order Decapoda (=“ten-legged”, referring to the 10 thoracic appendages normally present in these crustaceans). Crabs can be classified into 2 main groups, brachyuran crabs (infraorder Brachyura) and anomuran crabs (infraorder Anomura). Most species of Brachyura, or true crabs, can easily be separated from the so-called “false crabs” belonging to the infraorder Anomura by having 4 pairs of well-developed walking legs. Brachyuran crabs are bioenergetically vital faunal component of the mangrove ecosystem while decapod crustaceans are dominant in coral habitat.

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Smitanjali Choudhury ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹, K. Venkataraman ²

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman Nicobar Regional Centre, Andaman and Nicobar Islands -744102, IN
2 Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700053, IN

Abstract

Information on Actiniarian sea anemone in Andaman & Nicobar Archipelago were limited to the works of Parulekar (1967, 1968, 1969a, b, 1971 & 1990), until two recent works of Madhu and Madhu (2007) and Raghunathan et al. (2014) which reported 20 species from this locality. Of which, five species are new records to India and one species is new distributional record to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Keywords

Sea Anemone, New Record, Black Coral, Andaman and Nicobar Island, India.

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Naveen Kumar Nigam ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair-744102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN

Abstract

Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprised of 572 islands and islets in the Bay of Bengal (Latitude: 6°-14°N and Longitude: 91°-94°E) with a coast line of 1,962 km and provides a great biodiversity of coral reef ecosystem. Crinoidea is one of the five classes under the phylum Echinodermata. Crinoids are beautiful, delicate and brilliantly colored species. In coral reef communities, crinoids are suspension feeders and they carry out their feeding behavior by the movement of water and mostly they are nocturnal feeder. They use arms movement to catch and feed. Many faunal communities such as crabs, shrimps and brittle star are showing close association with the crinoids species. All living unstalked crinoids species belong to subclass Articulata (Ausich and Messing, 1998) commonly called feather stars and sea lilies. In modern marine environments feather star belongs to order-Comatulida and also a dominant group of living feather star (Messing,1997). They live in intertidal zone to abyssal (Belyaev, 1966; Oji et al., 2009). Comatulids are cup like body structure and with 5 to 200 arms (Towle, 1989). Crinoids represent 600 extant species in World’s Oceans while India represents 80 species, of which 50 species were reported from Andaman and Nicobar Islands (James, 2008). The present study describes new report of Tropiometra carinata (Lamarck, 1816) to Andaman and Nicobar Islands from Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor.

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Koushik Sadhukhan ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, National Coral Reef Research Institute, Port Blair- 744 102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN

Abstract

Holothurians, especially Holothuriidae and Stichopodidae, form an important part of multispecies invertebrate fi sheries that has been in existence in the Indo Pacifi c for traditional and subsistence uses for over 1000 years. In India, about 200 species of holothurians have been reported at earlier of which 75 species are found in shallow water depth. Of these only 12 species are commercially important. The commercially important holothurians are found from the intertidal region to a depth of 20m. At earlier, James (1973, 1983) provides the documentation on the holothurians resources of India chiefl y based on the intensive surveys along the Gulf of Mannar and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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C. Raghunathan ¹, R. Raghuraman ¹, Smitanjali Choudhury ¹, K. Venkataraman ²

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair-744102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN
2 Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata - 700053, IN

Abstract

Sea anemones are brightly coloured, classified under the phylum Cnidaria, inhabit coastal waters throughout the world, but are particularly abundant in tropical oceans. They are distributed in intertidal to deep oceans and live attached with rocks, sea floor, shells and some forms burrow in the mud or sand. They are radial symmetric with columnar body have a single body opening, mouth which is surrounded by tentacles. However, body shape of the sea anemones is often related to the habitat in which they live. Sea anemones are solitary polyps and are considerably larger and heavier than the polyps of hydrozoans (Barnes, 1982). There are over 1000 species of sea anemones reported worldwide.

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Koushik Sadhukhan ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Haddo, Port Blair-744 102, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IN

Abstract

Coral reefs are the most diverse marine habitat, and support an estimated 0.5 million species globally (Splading et al. 2001). They are among the most sensitive of all ecosystems to temperature changes, exhibiting bleaching when stressed by higher than normial sea temperatures Qokiel et al. 1977). The dinoflagellets algae called Zooxanthellate lives in the endodermal cells of the Corals. The zooxanthellae provide the coral with large quantities of organic materials, especially high calorific value lipids and carbohydrates which are believed to provide most of the energy for maintenance, tissue and skeletal growth, and possibly reproduction (Veron, 1986; Brown and Ogden, 1993; Meehan and Ostrander, 1997).

Keywords

Coral Bleaching, Zooxanthellate, Middle Andaman, Surface Sea-Water Temperature (SST), Live Coral Cover.

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J. S. Yogesh Kumar ¹, C. Raghunathan ¹, K. Venkataraman ²

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicohar Regional Centre, National Coral Reef Research Institute, Port Blair-744102, Andaman and Nicohar Islands, IN
2 Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata - 700053, IN

Abstract

The order antipatharia is Black or Horny Corals. They are-like upright and plant-like forms, are arranged around an axial skeleton of black horny material bearing thorns. Most forms inhabit deep water and live in the tropics. Although black corals are among the most common azooxanthellate corals in tropical reefs, they are least studied group in Indian waters.

Keywords

Antipatharians, Cirrhipathes, Antipathes, Stichopathes, Cupressopathes, Myriopathes, Antipathella, Plumapathes, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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V. Rangasamy ¹, C. Raghunathan ², Kailash Chandra ³

Affiliations
1 Forest Survey of India, Eastern Zone, Salt Lake, Kolkata – 700106, West Bengal, IN
2 Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair – 744102, Andaman and Nicobar, BD
3 Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata – 700053, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The re-occurrence of Nicobar spiny shrew Crocidura nicobarica a critically endangered and endemic species was found at Great Nicobar Island during the survey. The morphological and osteological and its behavioral observations have been analyzed in this paper after its original description by Miller (1902).

Keywords

Crocidura nicobarica, Endangered Mammal, Great Nicobar Island, Spiny Shrew.

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