Scylla serrata (Forskål, 1775)

Naderloo, Reza & Türkay, Michael, 2012, Decapod crustaceans of the littoral and shallow sublittoral Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf: Faunistics, Biodiversity and Zoogeography 3374, Zootaxa 3374 (1), pp. 1-67 : 40

Scylla serrata (Forskål, 1775)

Persian Gulf. UAE (Hogarth & Beach 2001), Iran (present study).

Iran. Hormozgan Province: in mangroves behind Bandar-Abbas Airport, Qeshm I. (small population in manplanted mangroves of Nagasheh at the south coast of the island).

General distribution. Indo-West Pacific: South Africa, East Africa, Mauritius, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, Tahiti, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Australia (Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, NSW).

Habitat. Mangroves.

Remarks. Keenan et al. (1998) revised the complex of Scylla serrata sensu lato and distinguished four different species, namely S. serrata (Forskål, 1775) , S. olivacea (Herbst, 1796) , S. tranquebarica (Fabricius, 1798) and S. paramamosain Estampador, 1949 . Keenan et al. (1998) stated that the exact distribution of S. serrata sensu strictu is not clear, but they believed that S. serrata recorded from Pakistan by Tirmizi & Kazmi (1996) rather refers to S. tranquebarica . Apel & Spiridonov (1998) recorded S. serrata from the eastern coast of UAE in Gulf of Oman, but they mentioned that this species has not been recorded from the inner Persian Gulf. Scylla serrata was recently recorded from the southeast Persian Gulf in Ras al-Khaimah ( UAE) by Hogarth & Beech (2001). This species is thought to have been very common in the past when extensive mangroves were widely distributed along the coast of the Persian Gulf ( Hogarth & Beech 2001). Consequently, its extinction more probably occurred following the disappearance of mangroves from most parts of the Persian Gulf. During the present study a small population was found in the planted mangroves along the south coast of the Qeshm I. which shows that this commercially important species has started again to be established in the Persian Gulf. In addition, a single specimen was observed in the mangal system behind the airport of Bandar-Abbas, whereas Scylla serrata is a quite common species in the mangroves of Khor-Khalasi along the Gulf of Oman coast of Iran (personal observation).