Abstract

The present study reported the first record of the rare species of brachyuran spanner crab Ranina ranina (Linnaeus, 1758) from Puducherry coastal waters situated on the east coast of India. A single specimen of Ranina ranina measuring about140 mm in carapace length was caught by a bottom set gill net operated in Nallavadu landing centre, Puducherry, on 19th November 2019. Crab was morphologically identified at species level through the description of colours, dentations of the carapace, and shapes of cheliped and pereiopods. Molecular identification was carried out by the partial sequencing of the barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, which is known to be hypervariable among different crab species. This is the first record of the Red frog crab or spanner crab Ranina ranina from Puducherry coastal waters and reported with DNA barcoding for the first time in India. Earlier it was reported from the Gulf of Mannar, South East coast of India and Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala located along the south-west coast of India.