Record of Crambionella annandalei Rao, 1931 from Bangladesh, with a review of the geographic distribution of the genus Crambionella (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Geographic ranges of some members of the genus Crambionella are not clarified so far. In the context of C. annandalei Rao, 1931, which has been reported only from India and Myanmar, herein we document the first record of this species from the coastal waters of Bangladesh, Bay of Bengal, providing a detailed account of characters, morphometric measurements and illustrations. A comparison of morphological features of C. annandalei from different geographic locations and its congeners is presented, including notes on its fishery value. A cautious review on the occurrence of Crambionella species within the Indian Ocean suggests that geographic distributions of each species are constrained within certain areas around their type localities. Thus, C. annandalei, C. helmbiru, C. orsini and C. stuhlmanni occur in the north-east, south-east, north-west and south-west regions of the Indian Ocean, respectively, without or with a minimum overlapping of each other. All four species occur during both summer and winter seasons of the Indian Ocean.