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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The length - weight relationship of Charybdis natator (Herbst, 1794) was studied from Gulf of Mannar for a period of one year. The interrelationship between carapace width, carapace length, chelarpropodus length, weight and abdominal width in males as well as females, were estimated. Fishing activities are carried out throughout the year. The carapace width of the crabs ranged from 2.4 cm to 12.8 cm, carapace length ranged from 1.9 cm to 9.5 cm and the weight ranged from 20 to 659 g. The smaller sized male and female C.natator species were recorded during October and February respectively. The coefficient of correlation (r) obtained for the carapace length-weight (Male - 0.910; Female - 0.837; Pooled data- 0.902) and carapace width -weight of males, females and pooled data were nearly equal to 1 (0.928, 0.913 and 0.934 respectively) indicating that the values were significant and hence, high degree of positive correlation existed between width - weight and length-weight in these crabs. Analysis of covariance of carapace width - weight data in the species between the regression equations in males and females were highly significant. The present results indicated that males are heavier than females at any given length / width in this species.