On the occurrence of Squilla leptosquilla Brooks (Crustacea, Stomatopoda) in the west coast of India

Abstract

Although Indian stomatopods have been studied extensively 6y Kemp (1913), Kemp and Chopra (1921), Chopra (1934) and recently by Tiwari and Biswas (1952), there has been no record of Squilla leptosquilla Brooks from the Arabian Sea. On 143-1963, while examining the bottom trawl collections made during the explora- 4 tory deep sea trawling cruise of M.V. KALAVA, three specimens of Squilla leptos- quilla Brooks were obtained among other interesting deep sea fishes from off Alleppey. The present communication records the occurrence of this rare deep water species for the first time in the Arabian Sea and provides supplementary descriptions I I which are considered to be of taxonomic significance (Manning, 1963).