in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

Provisional Check List of the Marine Crustaceans(Arthropoda; Crustacea) in Sri LankaPrasanna WeerakkodyIntroductionSri Lanka is surrounded by the Indian Ocean. The shallow seas in the continental shelf regiongently slope from sub-littoral zone to depths of around 30-50m, where it will begin to drop at asteep incline to depths of 600m to over 1000m. The width of the shelf from the shore line canvary from 5-15 km and connects with the Indian continental shelf in the Palk bay area. Beyondthe Territorial seas, the Exclusive Economic Zone of the country claims a sea area of 200nautical miles in extent except at the boundary it shares with India. The extent of the Territorialsea and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Sri Lanka stands at 21,500 Km 2 and 517,000 Km 2respectively, the latter amounting to nearly 8 times the total land area of the country.Sri Lankan marine environment contain a diverse array of habitats that range from coastalshallows to deep oceanic and pelagic regions, on soft and hard bottoms as well. These habitatshouse a diverse assemblage of marine crustacean fauna. The marine crustaceans are a highlydiverse group of invertebrates classified under the Phyllum Arthropoda, and consists primarilyof Marine and Aquatic forms. Indian shores contain about 3500 species of crustaceans andchecklist published for the State of Tamil-nadu contains about 419 species.This paper aims to cover the marine crustacean fauna of the shallow seas and the oceanicepi-pelagic zones and does not cover the deep sea fauna of the region. The list is compiled bycollecting available records specified for Sri Lanka. The regional records were not consideredduring the compilation of this list. However, some species recorded in the Indian shores of thePalk Strait and Mannar basin were selectively included based on personal observations madeby the author while diving in reef habitats or inspecting of incidental and fishing by-catch. Sincethe boundary of the estuarine species is not clearly defined, transitional zone fauna are alsoincluded in this list. The provisional checklist of marine crustaceans of Sri Lanka presented inthis paper includes 742 species. Based on the probabilities of occurrence it is estimated thatthe total Sri Lankan Crustacean fauna would comprise of approximately 1500 species.TaxonomyProbably the most extensive collection of records on marine invertebrates of Sri Lanka is givenin “Report to the Government of Ceylon on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries of the Gulf of Mannar”by W. A. Herdman (1903-06). This list however needs to be revised and verified based on thecurrent information available on crustacean taxonomy and distribution that has resulted due tosignificant amount of work that has been carried out by regional scientists and Indian OceanExplorations. Further, the commercially important crustacean species have been well studiedacross the region and information regarding this species can be found in the FAO speciescatalogues for the region. This paper is a preliminary effort at updating the list of Crustacea inSri Lanka based on available information and should not be considered as a complete list asit may contain inadequacies.396