Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 24: Purple crabs, which are one of the rarest species, have been found within the Western Ghat forest region's Karwar zone in Uttara Kannada district. These crabs were found by the roadside on September 11 by a team led by Bantwal SVS college lecturer and research scholar of applied zoology, Mangalore University, Supreet Kadakol.

These purple crabs were found for the first time in 2015 in the standing water in a hollow stem of a tree in Amboli, Maharashtra. It was also found in the Sharavati river valley region in Sagar taluk in 2017. There is no information of more such findings thereafter.

These freshwater creatures which come out only during the rainy season, hide themselves in cool places during the summer. As per the morphometric analysis, they belong to Ghatiana breed as per preliminary information. It has been decided to undertake further studies by the applied zoology department of Mangalore University to decide whether this is the same species or different.

Supreet Kadakol said that the crabs were found during the visit to Karwar to conduct research on spiders. As this is a unique variety, they have been given to the universities for study purposes, he revealed. Professor in the department of applied zoology, Dr M S Mushtaq, said that study has begun and reports might be received by November. He said that if this is some other unique kind of crab, this will be a new find. He also said that the fact whether more such crabs are there in the same area will be found out.