New species of blind albino cave crab found in India
India’s eighth longest cave in Meghalaya has revealed one of its closely guarded secrets. Researchers have stumbled up an almost blind, albino crab that had to date remained hidden in the darkest corners of the 7.3 km long cave. Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India, after preliminary inspection and discussions with international experts, claimed that it was a new species.
NEWDELHI: A seven kilometre long cave in Meghalaya has turned out to be the home of an almost blind species of crabs that were yet unknown to the scientists.
Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), after preliminary inspection and discussions with international experts, claimed that the discovered albino crab was a new species.
“It is definitely a new species. This is the first cave crab from India. Its physical features are quite different from the crabs we see around or from other cave crabs discovered earlier in Asia,” said Santanu Mitra, a ZSI scientist who inspected the specimens.
It is estimated that around 8.7 million species of plants and animals live on the earth out of which only around 1.2 million have been discovered.
“I am in touch with Mitra and have seen the pictures. It may well be a new species. There is nothing like it I know from all of India or the countries around it,” Peter Ng Kee Lin a world renowned field biologist from University of Singapore and an expert on fresh water crabs, told Hindustan Times.
After holding discussions with international experts, ZSI scientists claimed that crabs belong to the Teretamon genus. This is the third species of the genus. While the first one was discovered in Myanmar several decades ago, the second one was discovered in Mizoram by Mitra in 2016.
The crabs were discovered by Parveen Farzana Absar, 29, who is pursuing her masters in wildlife sciences from Aligarh Muslim University. The researcher was inspecting various caves of east-Jaintia hills in Meghalaya over the past two months.
“I would like to name it Teretamon absarum after my parents – Ahsan Absar and Farzana Absar,” said Parveen.
On March 29 she stumbled upon the crab family around 200 m from the mouth of the cave. Unlike other crabs, which come in various colours , these crabs are albino with small bodies measuring less than 2 cm. While other crabs have well developed claws often larger than their bodies, these cave crabs have short and slender legs.
“They are perfectly adapted to cave-life and live in ‘dark zones’ under pitch black darkness, where temperatures remain almost constant. Because there is no light they have no colouring pigments,” said Mitra.
Blind albino cave crabs have been earlier reported from some Asian countries, , however, scientists claimed that the Meghalaya-crab is different from other cave crabs.
“While this one has a large eye socket but a retina smaller than a poppy seed the others have smaller sockets. In others, the body is serrated (like a saw) on the sides and do not have hairy legs,” said Mitra.