Rare purple crab spotted in Uttara Kannada

Mangaluru: A rare purple color crab was spotted in the Western Ghats area of Uttara Kannada district recently.

The crab was spotted by Ph.D. student Supreet Kadkol of Dr MS Mustak, department of applied zoology, Mangalore University, when he was traveling from the Ghat section to the seashore.

Speaking in this regard, Dr Mustak  “The six mature crabs were spotted on the roadside and under the rocks around the terrestrial habitat, and according to literature, these freshwater purple crabs are only found during the rainy season.

“The locals present there were also surprised by the color of the crab. Preliminary studies and morphometric analysis revealed that the purple crab belongs to the genus Ghatiana. We are yet to ascertain if it is a new species for which molecular taxonomic analysis is being undertaken at the lab,” Dr Mustak said.

A purple tree crab was first spotted by Arjun Kamdar and team in July 2015 from rainwater-containing tree holes in Amboli, Maharashtra.