International Journal of Aquaculture, 2017, Vol.7, No.22, 139-142
139
Research Report Open Access
First Records of Leucosiid Crabs:
Hiplyra sagitta
(Galil, 2009) from Iraqi Coast,
NW-Arabian Gulf
Khaled K.S. Al-Khafaji , Ibtisam M. Abdul-Sahib, Shaker G. Ajeel
Marine Biology Department, Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
Corresponding author Email
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2017, Vol. 7, No.22 doi
Received: 13 Nov., 2017
Accepted: 05 Dec., 2017
Published: 15 Dec., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Al-Khafaji et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Al-Khafaji K.K.S., Abdul-Sahib I.M., and Ajeel S.G., 2017, First records of Leucosiid crabs:
Hiplyra sagitta
(Galil, 2009) from Iraqi coast, NW-Arabian Gulf,
International Journal of Aquaculture, 7(22): 139-142 (doi
Abstract
In the present study, a Leucosiid crab
Hiplyra sagitta
(Galil, 2009), was found for the first time in the
Iraqi coast,
from the lower reaches of Shatt Al-Arab at Fao city, Basrah, Iraq, during November 2016. Diagnostic characters of the species are
figured and its world geographical distribution, especially in the Persian Gulf region is considered.
Keywords
New records;
Hiplyra sagitta
; Decapoda
1 Background
Leucosiidae is common family in the Arabian-Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and red sea. This is most diverse and
distribution of all brachyuran families (Stephensen, 1946; Titgen, 1982; Apel, 2001 Naderloo and Türkay, 2012).
Leucosiidae family formed about 16.6% of all brachyuran crab species of the Persian Gulf (Apel, 2001).
Previous studies on the Persian Gulf brachyuran crabs are confined to Stephensen (1945), Basson et al.
(1977),
Titgen (1982), Jones (1986), Apel (1994), Cooper (1995), Al-Ghais and Cooper (1996), Bahmani (1997), Apel
(2001), Naderloo and Sari (2007), Galil (2009), Gilil et al. (2012), Naderloo and Apel (2012) and Naderloo and
Türkay (2012) have increased the number of reported leucosiid species to 37. The aim of the present paper deals
with first record for Iraqi coast of Leucosiid crabs
H. sagitta
from fresh specimens collected from NW of the
Arabian Gulf at Fao region and to add this species to the brachyuran crabs list of Iraqi waters.
2 Materials and Methods
The specimens of Leucosiid crabs
H. sagitta
were collected from intertidal and shallow subtidal zones of Iraqi
coast at the Rass Al-Beshaa area from the lower reaches of the Shatt Al-Arab in Fao city, north-western Arabian
Gulf (Figure 1) by hand and trawl net. Some physico-chemical parameters recorded from the study area during the
collections made in November 2016 are: water temperature, 22.5°C; pH, 7.68; salinity, 34.5 psu; dissolved
oxygen, 6.94 mg/L. The specimens of Leucosiid crabs
H. sagitta
were preserved in 70-80% alcohol and shipped
to the laboratory of Marine biology Dep., Marine science Center, University of Basrah and deposited in the (MSC,
54).
The specimens of this species were identified following: Galil (2009) and Naderloo and Apel (2012)
Abbreviations used: CL. = Carapace length; CB. = Carapace breadth
3 Results
3.1 Systematics
Order: Decapoda Latreille, 1802
Superfamily: Leucosioidea Samouelle, 1819
Family: Leucosiidae Samouelle, 1819
Hiplyra sagitta
: Galil, 2009 (Figure 2)
