On the occurrence of Plesionika ensis (A. Milne Edwards) (Pandalroae, Crustacea) in the Arabian Sea with notes on its biology and fishery potentialities

Abstract

The genus Pksionika Bate, which comprises mostly of deep-water prawns, is represented in Indian waters by six species and none of them is known to occur in such quantities as to form s sizable portion of any commercial catch. Pksionika ensis (A. M. Edwards) was present in fair quantities in the exploratory trawler landings of the Indo-Norwegian Project vessels from south-west coast of India. The only previous record of the species from the Indian Ocean region is that of Alcock (1901), who collected two specimens from the Andaman Sea. The exploratory trawling operations in the deeper waters (at depths ranging from 200 to 395 metres) were carried out from October 1967 to February 1968 with suitably designed shrimptrawls in the offshore areas lying between Quilon and Ponnani (Lat. 08°40' N. to 10° 55' N. and Long. 75° 35' E. to 75° 55' E.) (Fig. 4). P. ensis was obtained from almost all these areas in varying quantities and as this species is so far known to science from only limited number of specimens a brief description is given here together with notes on its biology and fishery possibilities.