Natural diet of the moon crab, Ashtoret miersii (Henderson, 1887) collected from the southeast cost of India.
Allayie, *., Ravichandran, S., Hemalatha, S., Bhat, B., Anbuchezhian, R. (2012). Natural diet of the moon crab, Ashtoret miersii (Henderson, 1887) collected from the southeast cost of India.. EKB Journal Management System, 4(1), 69-73. doi: 10.21608/eajbsz.2012.13540
*Sartaj Ahmad Allayie; S. Ravichandran; S. Hemalatha; Bilal Ahmad Bhat; RM. Anbuchezhian. "Natural diet of the moon crab, Ashtoret miersii (Henderson, 1887) collected from the southeast cost of India.". EKB Journal Management System, 4, 1, 2012, 69-73. doi: 10.21608/eajbsz.2012.13540
Allayie, *., Ravichandran, S., Hemalatha, S., Bhat, B., Anbuchezhian, R. (2012). 'Natural diet of the moon crab, Ashtoret miersii (Henderson, 1887) collected from the southeast cost of India.', EKB Journal Management System, 4(1), pp. 69-73. doi: 10.21608/eajbsz.2012.13540
Allayie, *., Ravichandran, S., Hemalatha, S., Bhat, B., Anbuchezhian, R. Natural diet of the moon crab, Ashtoret miersii (Henderson, 1887) collected from the southeast cost of India.. EKB Journal Management System, 2012; 4(1): 69-73. doi: 10.21608/eajbsz.2012.13540

Natural diet of the moon crab, Ashtoret miersii (Henderson, 1887) collected from the southeast cost of India.

Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences, B. Zoology
Article 8, Volume 4, Issue 1, December 2012, Page 69-73  XML PDF (197.8 K)
Document Type: Original Article
DOI: 10.21608/eajbsz.2012.13540
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Authors
*Sartaj Ahmad Allayie1; S. Ravichandran2; S. Hemalatha1; Bilal Ahmad Bhat1; RM. Anbuchezhian2
1Department of Zoology, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar – 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India.
2Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Parangipettai-608502, India.
Abstract
During monsoon season, a total of 550 Ashtoret miersii were obtained from Parangipettai coastal environment, south-east cost of India to study its natural diet. The occurrence of this crab is the first record in Indian coast which expands in its known range. The analysis of gut contents indicated that these crabs are primarily carnivorous. Their diet consisted of 52% to 84% of animal tissue. The juveniles and sub adults of this crab were found to feed actively than adults. The diet of juveniles was mainly composed of mollusks (11%) and arthropods (32%) by volume. The stomach contents of sub adult crabs were dominated by arthropods (38%) whereas in adults, mollusks were the major food (32%). Dietary diversity values were consistently high in all cases and variation was slight. However, variation was somewhat higher between juveniles and adults classes.
Keywords
First record; gut contents; carnivorous; juveniles; sub adults and adults
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