An account of the brachyuran crab diversity along the Andhra Pradesh coast of India has been represented in this communication. The checklist of brachyuran crabs has been prepared for the state of Andhra Pradesh based on reviews and compilation of published research works for this particular region. A total of 156 species belonging to 91 genera and 33 families have been listed here from Andhra Pradesh. Visakhapatnam showed the highest diversity with 86 species in all the marine areas and Vizianagaram has the lowest diversity recorded from the state with one species. Although the study on the brachyurans from Andhra Pradesh had been started from early 1800 but recent works on brachyurans from Andhra Pradesh is lacking and with a focused study from the area would help in exploration of brachyuran’s diversity from the east coast of India.

Two species of brachyuran crabs from two families, Eucrate indica Castro & Ng, 2010 belonging to the family Euryplacidae and another one is Liagore rubromaculata (De Haan, 1983) belonging to the family Xanthidae are reported for the first time from the Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh. The crabs were collected from the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour in the trawl bycatch during the reef and reef-associated faunal survey along Andhra coast. The morphological features, taxonomical systematic, colour and distribution of these crabs are discussed herein.

Acanthocepola limbata (Valenciennes, 1835) is reported for the first time from Northern Bay of Bengalon the basis of specimens collected from Petuaghat fish landing, West Bengal coast and this species reported from Karnataka, Maharastra, Kerala, west coast of India and Gulf of Mannar, east coast of India. In this manuscript, details on the morphological characters have been provided and discussed with all the reported species in the genus found in India.

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Crustaceans are a highly diverse group. In particular, the order Decapoda represents a highly diverse order of malacostracan crustaceans. There are 7620 brachyuran species from 104 genera present globally. In India, 910 marine brachyuran crabs are reported, belonging to 361 genera and 62 families. Andhra Pradesh shows typical habitat heterogeneity for Brachyuran crabs. A total of 121 brachyuran crabs have been reported from Andhra Pradesh. Two species of brachyuran crabs, one is Eucrate indica Castro & P.K.L. Ng, 2010 belonging to the family Euryplacidae Stimpson, 1871 and another is Liagore rubromaculata (De Haan, 1983) belonging to the family Xanthidae MacLeay, 1838 are reported here for the first time from the Visakhapatnam coast, Andhra Pradesh, India. These crabs were collected from the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour in the trawl bycatch during the coral reef and reef-associated faunal survey in Andhra Pradesh. The morphological features, taxonomical systematic, colour and distribution of these crabs are discussed here.