The crab, Ozius tuberculosus H.Milne Edwards 1834, has been reported for the first time from the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. A distributional account of this species throughout India as well as throughout the world also prepared along with the taxonomic account.
Systematic Accounts:
Infraorder Brachyura Latreille 1802
Superfamily Eriphioidea MacLeay, 1838
Family Oziidae Dana, 1851
Sub family Oziinae Dana, 1851
Genus Ozius Milne-Edwards 1834
Species Ozius tuberculosus H.Milne Edwards 1834 (Fig. 3A-F)
Material Examined:
Three male specimens (Fig. 3), Yarada beach, Visakhapatnam, Bay of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, India, (17.6548 N, 83.2697 E), on 22.01.2022, Coll.: Dr. Deepa Jaiswal & party, Accession No: FBRC/ZSI/M/217, after dissecting gonopods, examined under Olympus SZX10 stereo-zoomed microscope and photographs taken under Leica M205 microscope and with Nikon D500 with Nikkor 40 mm lens kit.
Diagnostic Characters:
Carapace broad and transversely oval shaped. Surface of carapace rough. Region of carapace deeply defined. The anterolateral borders divided into 5 lobes, each one mounted with small tubercles. Frontal teeth divided into four tuberculate protuberances. Chelipeds unequal in size, carpus and palm swollen. Movable finger of bigger cheliped with tubercle near the base. Finger of major cheliped with curved teeth. Five anterolateral teeth on both sides of carapace. Without lateral spine. Morphometric measurements are given in table 1.
Table.1 Morphometric measurements of Ozius tuberculosus H.Milne Edwards 1834
Sl. No. | Carapace Measurements | Length (mm) |
1 | Length of Carapace | 10.38–40 |
2 | Width of Carapace | 14.5–29 |
3 | Height of Carapace | 5.68–16 |
4 | Frontal length (Length between two eyes) | 5.32–14.32 |
5 | Ventral Length | 5.56–13.95 |
Colour:
The males showed fully purple colored with pearly white and yellowish tubercles. Eyes black, dactyl umber coloured. Middle of the carapace having “U”-shaped white coloured structure. Pleonal segments of male also purple coloured. Base of legs umber to light yellowish coloured. Females also same in colour as like males (Fig. 3A-F).
Male Genitalia:
First gonopod stout, little bit straight and sides plagued with hairs. Second gonopod whip like, very thin and curled at the epical region, larger than the first gonopod (Fig. 4).
Habitat:
Typically inhabits rocky intertidal shores, living between rocks in these areas (Fig. 5).
Distribution:
India: Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Alock, 1898), Andhra Pradesh (current report), Karnataka (Dev Roy, 2013), Kerala (Dev Roy, 2013), Lakshadweep Islands (Trivedi, 2018) and Maharashtra (Khot et. al. 2016). Elsewhere: Mauritius (Michel, 1964), Mergui Archipelago (Alock, 1898), Japan - Northern Daito-jima (Sakai, 1939), Northern and Southern Daito-jima (Sakai, 1976a), Taiwan (Lai, 1997), China - Hainan Island (Dai & Yang, 1991), Malaysia, New Caledonia (Forges, 2006).