New species of cave crabs discovered in Meghalaya
A seven-kilometrelong cave in Meghalaya has turned out to be the home of an almost blind species of crabs that were yet unknown to 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, of which only 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 HT.
After discussions, ZSI scientists claimed that the 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 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. She was inspecting caves of east-Jaintia hills in Meghalaya.
“I would like to name it Teretamon absarum after my parents — Ahsan Absar and Farzana Absar,” said Parveen.