Karwar (Uttara Kannada): A new species of freshwater crab was spotted in the Yallapur area of Uttara Kannada district and has been named 'Aradhya Placida'. Naturalist Gopalakrishna Hegde, forest department staffer Parasurama Bhajantri, along with Dr Sameera Kumar Pati of Pune Zoological Observatory, spotted the new species. This is for the first time that a new species of crab was found in the state.
The newly found freshwater crab was named Aaradhya. Aaradhya is the name of the youngest daughter of naturalist Gopalkrishna Hegde, who spotted the crab. It was a freshwater crab and was spotted in the garden of Gopalkrishna Hegde. Crabs of the 'Aradhya' genus are usually found in freshwater. They are very mild in nature. It is often seen that when crabs were grouped together, they will fight until their horns were broken. But, researchers in their findings discovered that these crabs sit quietly in one place without making any attacks.
According to sources, 21 genera of crabs were discovered so far in the Western Ghats, stretching from Gujarat to Tamil Nadu, and 'Aradhya Placida' spotted in Yallapur was the 22nd. So far, 76 species of crabs have been found in the Western Ghats. After the discovery of the 75th crab 'Ghatiana Dvivarna', the 76th species 'Vela Bandhavya' was also found by the team of Gopalkrishna and Bhajantri in the last two years. Now the 77th new species of crab was found by the same researchers.
Also read: New bicolour crab species 'Ghatiana Dvivarna' found in Karnataka
The fourth species of crab belonging to the Vela genus category was found in the Yallapur taluk of Uttara Kannada district. This crab was also discovered by Gopalkrishna Hegde's team. This crab species has a yellow and saffron complexion and is found in gardens and fields during the rainy season. Four inches wide and three-and-a-half-inches long, this crab has a black moth-like shape from its head to its back. It burrows into the soil of flat land about one to one and a half feet deep.
