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Crabs of Western Ghats

5 Spectacular Crabs Discovered In Western Ghats

March 14, 2016Discoverycrabs, freshwater crabs, new crabs, western ghatsAtula Gupta

The Western Ghats of India are a true explorer’s haven because of the diversity of life forms that exist here. This has been proven yet again with the discovery of 5 new species of brightly coloured freshwater crabs from this biodiversity hotspot. These crabs prefer to live on land and need freshwater pools for breeding.
The discovery of the crabs was done by undergraduate student and researchers from the Zoological Survey of India and the Indian Herpetological Society.
The five crabs are,
Ghatiana splendida

Image by Arjun Kamdar

• Named for its splendid colours the crab has pink shell and pincers, and orange legs.
• Found hiding in cracks of rocks in a plateau in Amboli district of Maharashtra.
• Claw bearing pincers are unequal in size with left larger than the right one.
• Known locally as the pink forest crab before scientific discovery.

Ghatiana atropurpurea

Image by Arjun Kamdar

• Known locally as the purple tree crab, before scientific discovery.
• The tree-living crab prefers to live on jamun trees, and resembles the color of the fruits.
• Discovered in a tree hole in Amboli district of Maharshtra.
• One claw bearing pincer is larger than the other
• Locals have observed it scavenging on millipedes or snakes killed due to road accidents.

“The locals knew about the two Ghatianas and photographers had clicked them, too, but no one really thought what genus or species they were,” says Tejas Thackeray, who discovered the two species, along with Gubernatoriana thackerayi, when he was on a project photographing the endemic reptiles and amphibians of Kokan, Maharashtra, in 2015. “They would just call them the purple tree crab or the pink forest crab,” adds Thackeray, who is a 19-year old BA student at Jai Hind College in Mumbai and a wildlife photography enthusiast.
He also told The Wire,
“On the third day of the trip we decided to go on a plateau nearby looking for the rare olive forest snake. After hours of searching and no signs of the snake, we decided to climb down the slope and explore the area. It was raining heavily and the area was full of leeches and suddenly I see this absolutely stunning, brilliant pink crab getting out of a hole and I couldn’t believe it; I had never seen a crab this beautiful. Hence, we decided to name it Ghatiana splendida,”
Gubernatoriana thackerayi

Image by Shailesh Bhosale

• Named after its discoverer Tejas Thackrey.
• Discovered during monsoons in horizontal rock cracks in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
• Striking red in colour with orange-red pincers.
• Active during the day and feeds on worms.
• Females have equal sized pincers while males have unequal size.
• Walking legs have fine brown bristles.

Gubernatoriana waghi

Image by Rachit Shah

• Named after its discoverer Prashant Wagh.
• Discovered under small rocks on the edge of a cliff in Harishchandragad, Ahmednagar disctrict of Maharshtra.
• Orange crab with beautiful ivory coloured legs.
• Unequal pincers with right one larger than the left one.

Gubernatoriana alcocki

Image by B.V.Jadhav

• Named after Indian-born British naturalist Alfred William Alcock, for his work on crustaceans.
• Seen under rocks in short living streams, in Satara, Maharashtra.
• Crab is olive brown in colour, with orange-brown pincers.
• Has an unusual predator-prey relationship with Bombay swamp eels. Adult eels feed on the crab whereas the crab feeds on juvenile eels.

The researchers believe that the 5 discoveries are merely a small percent of the variety of freshwater crabs that might be living in the Western Ghats. Because of the crabs’ very specific habitat requirements, they are also equally under threat from human led developments that can easily destroy the small habitat needed by each of the species. Deforestation, water pollution and habitat destruction are all a challenge says Sameer Pati who was instrumental in the discovery of the genus Ghatiana in 2014.

Mushrooms

20 Incredibly Beautiful Photos Of Mushroom Mushrooms come in all shapes, sizes, and colors and are almost as diverse as the animal kingdom. It’s easy to ignore them since many are tiny, and often grow in dark, hidden places, which has made classifying them into groups quite difficult. Thiscollection will show you five species of mushrooms, yet all of the members of the species differ from each other so much that it is difficult to believe they’re from the same family.   Coprinus This is a smaller species, and used to be classified as part of a larger family that included the Ageric family (the kind with the red cap with white spots), but in 2001 it was declared as a separate species. Molecular studies found that the Coprinus is so removed from the Ageric, they’re barely distant cousins. The Coprinus family is divided into three sub-species: Coprinellus, Coprinopsis, and Parasola.   Crepidotus Members of the Crepidotus family have a shape that is reminiscent of a hand fan, and are often found growing on decomposing wood or plants. These mushrooms are subjects of many ongoing studies, and most of them are either brown or white, except for two sub-species: the red Crepidotus cinnabarinus, and the orange Crepidotus crocophyllus. Cyptotrama asprata These little guys can be found growing in tropical areas, and have a distinct yellow cap, and in juveniles, the cap looks as if it is covered in spikes. This mushroom species managed to baffle researchers for many years and was part of 14 different mushroom groups until it was decided to classify it as a whole separate species. Entoloma This is a diverse family of fungi that encompasses over 1,000 different species. Most members of the family are pink and have a smooth texture. In recent years, this species has been responsible for many food poisonings in Europe, North America, and Japan. One interesting distinction is the Entoloma species that grow in Australia, which come in different shades of blue and green.   Leratiomyces Only in 2008 was this species officially recognized, after three attempts to classify it as such. The species has several sub-species that used to be classified as members of the Stropharia, Hypholoma, and Weraroa species. These mushrooms are fond of wood chips and grassy soil, and can often be found growing in people’s gardens.

Beauty of snakes

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