Diversity of malacofauna from the Paleru and Moosy backwaters of Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India

Among the various groups represented in the macrobenthic fauna of the Bay of Bengal at Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India, molluscs were the dominant group. Molluscs were exploited for industrial, edible and ornamental purposes and their extensive use has been reported way back from time immemorial. Hence the present study was focused to investigate the diversity of Molluscan fauna along the Paleru and Moosy backwaters of Prakasam district during 2016-17 as these backwaters are not so far explored for malacofauna. A total of 23 species of molluscs (16 species of gastropods belonging to 12 families and 7 species of bivalves representing 5 families) have been reported in the present study. Among these, gastropods such as Umbonium vestiarium, Telescopium telescopium and Pirenella cingulata, and bivalves like Crassostrea madrasensis and Meretrix meretrix are found to be the most dominant species in these backwaters.

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