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Aquaculture & Marine Biology

Mini Review Volume 5 Issue 2

Marine Invasive Alien Crustaceans of India

NC Nandi, MK Dev Roy

Social Environmental and Biological Association, India

Correspondence: NC Nandi, Social Environmental and Biological Association, India

Received: February 02, 2017 | Published: February 13, 2017

Citation: Roy MKD, Nandi NC (2017) Marine Invasive Alien Crustaceans of India. J Aquac Mar Biol Biol 5(2): 00115 DOI: 10.15406/jamb.2017.05.00115

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Mini Review

An invasive species is one which has been introduced from one geographical location to another through human agency and upon establishment has a tendency to spread (invade), causing damage to the environment, man-made structure and human health or economy. An introduced (also referred to as alien, exotic, non-indigenous or non-native) species becomes invasive when it outcompetes native species for various resources such as space, light, water or food. The new environment may offer fewer able competitors, thereby allowing the invader species to multiply quickly (Wikipedia). The invasives are widely distributed in all types of ecosystems and posing a serious threat to native biodiversity leading to the extinction of native species. Wilcove et al. [1] considered invasive species as the second major cause of extinctions of native and endemic species around the world. According to an estimate in 2001, the economic loss caused by invasive species to agriculture and forestry in India is to the tune of 91 billion dollar a year Hiremath & Krishnan [2]. The magnitude of invasions may be apparently local, but the drivers of bio-invasion are global. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), there is a need for “compilation and dissemination of information on alien species that threaten ecosystem, habitats, or species, to be used in the context of any prevention, introduction and mitigation activities (CBD, 2000)”.

Invasion of a species (bio-invasion) from one bio-region to another takes place in two ways. They may be intentional (such as aquacultural/agricultural purposes etc.) or unintentional (such as through ship’s ballast water discharge and fouling of ship hulls).

India has 13 major and 200 non-major ports. About 95% of India’s trade by volume and 70% of value takes place through maritime transport. Ships are considered as the major factor for translocation of alien species from one bio-region to another. In this respect, harbours serve as a gateway for the introduction of species. Information on marine invasive species from Indian maritime system is very meagre. During the last one decade, quite a good number of crustacean species has been reported as ‘introduced’ to Indian waters by ballast water (Table 1). This consists of 5 species of decapods, 6 species of isopods, 9 species of amphipods, 7 species of cirripedes and 5 species of copepods. Only one species of decapod, namely, Litopenaeus vannamei has been introduced to Indian water for aquaculture purposes. The invasive status of some of these species, however, are yet to be determined. So far, no ecological impact of these species to native ecosystems are ascertained. However, the possibility that they could be undergoing a lag phase cannot be ruled out. This is the first comprehensive list on crustacean invasive species from Indian maritime ecosystems [3-11].

Sl. No.

Group and Species

Family

Native/Exotic/Cryptogenic

Threat Status

Source

 

Decapoda

 

 

 

 

1

Penaeus (Penaeus) monodon (Fabricius, 1798)

Penaeidae

Native

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

2

Litopenaeus vannamei (Boone, 1931)

Penaeidae

Exotic, Introduced

Not suspected 

Dev Roy [5]

3

Charybdis (Charybdis) feriata (Linnaeus, 1758)

Portunidae

Native

Suspected harmful species

Anil et al. [4]

4

Charybdis (Charybdis) hellerii (A.Milne Edwards, 1861)

Portunidae

Native

Known harmful species

Anil et al. [4]

5

Scylla serrata (Forskal, 1775)

Portunidae

Native

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

 

Isopoda

 

 

 

 

6

Cirolana hardfordi (Lockington, 1877)

Cirolanidae

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

7

Cilicaea latreillei Leach Limnoriidae, 1818

Cirolanidae

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [3]

8

Paradella dianae (Menzies, 1962)

Sphaeromatidae

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

9

Sphaeroma serratum (Fabricius, 1787)

Sphaeromatie

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

10

Sphaeroma walkeri

Sphaeromatie

Native

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

11

Synidotea laevidorsalis (Benedict, 1897

Idoteidae

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

 

Amphipoda

 

 

 

 

12

Monocorophium acherusicum (Costa, 1853) as Corophium acherusicum Costa, 1853

Corophiidae

Exotic

Not yet assessed

Shyamasudari [8]

13

Jassa falcata (Montague, 1808)

Ischyroceride

Exotic

Not yet assessed

Shyamasundari [8]

14

Jassa marmorata Holmes, 1905

Ischyroceride

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

15

Elasmopus rapax Costa, 1853

Maeridae

Exotic

Not yet assessed

Shyamasundari [8]

16

Quadrimaera pacifica (Schellenberg, 1938) as Maera pacifica Schellenberg, 1938

Maeridae

Exotic

-

Anil et al. [3]

17

Paracaprella pusilla Mayr, 1890

Caprellidae

Exotic

Not yet assessed

Guerra-García, [7]

18

Stenothoe gallensis Walker, 1904

Stenothoidae

Exotic

-

Anil et al. [4]

19

Stenothoe valida Dana, 1852

Stenothoidae

Exotic

Not yet assessed

Shyamasundari [8]

20

Podocerus brasiliensis (Dana, 1853)

Podoceridae

Exotic

-

Anil et al. [4] Shyamasundari [8]

 

Cirripedia

 

 

 

 

21

Amphibalanus cirratus (Darwin, 1854) as Balanus amphitrite cirratus

Archaebalane

Native

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

22

Amphibalanus eburneus (Gould, 1841) as Balanus amphitrite eburneus

Archaebalane

Cryptogenic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

23

Amphibalanus reticulatus (Utinomi, 1967) as Balanus reticulatus Utinomi, 1967 and Balanus amphitrite hawaiiensis Broch

Archaebalane

Exotic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]Anil et al. [3]

24

Fistulobalanus pallidus (Darwin, 1854)= Balanus amphitrite stutsburi (Darwin)

Balanidae

Exotic

-

Wagh [9], Anil et al. [4]

25

Balanus trigonus Darwin, 1854

Balanidae

Native

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

26

Megabalanus tintinnabulum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Balanidae

Exotic

Known harmful species

Anil et al. [4]

27

Megabalanus zebra (Darwin, 1854)

Balanidae

Cryptogenic

Not suspected

Anil et al. [4]

 

Copepoda

 

 

 

 

28

Nannocalanus minor (Claus, 1863)

Calanidae

Exotic

-

Gaonkar et al. [6]

29

Cosmocalanus sp.

Calanidae

-

-

Gaonkar et al. [6]

30

Paracalanus sp.

Calanidae

-

-

Gaonkar et al. [6]

31

Tortanus sp.

Tortanidae

-

-

Gaonkar et al. [6]

32

Euterpina acutifrons (Dana, 1847)

Euterpinidae

Exotic

-

Gaonkar et al.[6]

Table 1: List of alien crustaceans recorded from Indian water and their threat stop.

References

  1. Wilcove DS, Rothstein D, Dubow J, Phillips A, Losos E (1998) Quantifying threats to imperiled species in the United States. Bioscience 48(8): 607-615.
  2. Hiremath AJ Krishnan S (2016) India knows its invasive species problem but this is why nobody can deal with it properly. The Wire: Environment. Convention on Biological Diversity.
  3. Anil AC, Venkat K, Sawant SS, Dileepkumar M, Dhargalkar VK, et al. (2002) Marine bioinvasion: concern for ecology and shipping. Curr Sci 83(3): 214-218.
  4. Anil AC, Clarke C, Hayes T, Hilliard R, Joshi G, et al. (2003) Ballast water risk assessment: Ports of Mumbai and Jawaharlal Nehru,India, October 2003: Final Report. IMO GloBallast Monograph Series 11: 1–63. IMO, London.
  5. Dev Roy MK (2007) Problems and prospects of White leg shrimp culture in India. SEBA Newsletter 4(1): 15.
  6. Gaonkar CA, Sawant SS, Anil AC, Venkat K, Harkantra SN (2010) Mumbai harbour, India: gateway for introduction of marine organisms. Environ Monit Assess 1631: 583-589.
  7. Guerra-García JM, Ganesh T, Jaikumar M, Rama AV (2010) Caprellids (Crustacea: Amphipoda) from India. Helgoland Marine Research 64(4): 297-310.
  8. Shyamasundari K (1997) Amphipoda. In: Nagabhushanam R & Thompson MF (Eds.), Fouling Organisms of the Indian Ocean. Biology and Control Technology pp. 363-390.
  9. Wagh AB (1973) Probable transportation of Balanus amphitrite stutsburi (Darwin) by ship. J Bombay nat Hist Soc 70(2): 399-400.
  10. Introduced species en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduced_species
  11. Invasive species en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species
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