Abstract
Pakistan has enormous coastal resources along its southern border. Due to the geographical position and climatic condition, the coastal
area of the country is known as one of the highly productive areas of the world. Along the coastal belt there is a chain of unique
mangrove forests which consists of distinctive ecosystem. A survey was conducted in three different mangrove forests located at
Sandspit, Port Qasim and Agra Taj during March 2008 to August 2009 with a view to assess the status of crab in these areas. The
study was conducted on the distribution and species diversity. A total of ten species of crabs were recorded from the area namely Uca
sp., Uca annulipes, Uca urvelli, Macropthalmus depressus, Metapograpsus thukuhar, Scylla serreta, Sesarma lanatum, Sesarma
plicatum, Sesarma sp. and Heteropanope glabra belonging to four families Ocypodidae, Mennipidae, Portunidae, Grapsidae and
Pilumnidae. The small crab species Heteropanope glabra was highly abundant species of mangrove forests while Sesarma lanatum
was found to be rare in all the localities. The results showed Sandspit area to have highest values of diversity indices the species
richness (1.92), Diversity (2.13), Evenness (0.92) and least value of dominance (0.09) compared with other localities. Morphometric
measurements showed that Scylla serrata grows to relatively higher carapace area8.5 cm2 whereas rest of the species possessed
carapace length upto 1.1 cm.
