Categories
vol-1THE BIOLOGY OF LUPA. PELAGIOA.
(LINNEAUS)
By
A. A. AL-KHOLY, PH. D.
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
A.l-Ghardaqa, Red Sea, U.A.R.
a.nd
M. M. EL-HAWARY, M. Se.
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries
Al-Ghardaqa, Red Sea, U.A.R.
Habitat and Distribution :
L. pelagica, lives on the sal:dyor muddy sea bottom neal’ the shore in shallow
uepths; either walking on it or swimming nearby using its fifth pair of walking
legs or oar-feet.
Oalman (19~7), stated that l’upa ( = Neptunu8) pelagica Linneaus is a Red
Sea species. It has migrated through the suez Canal to the Mediterranean where
it established itself and now forms a good fishery on the Egyptian Mediterranean
Ooasts.
Munro Fox (1927), mentioned that Neptunus was first seen in numbers in
the Oanal, between 1889 and 1893, although Krukenberg records one specimen
from the Bitter Lakes in 1886. In 1889 this crab was not known at Km. 133,
although at (1924) it is common there. By 1893, however, it had become common
at Kabret, and in the same year the crabs were observed for the first time at Toussaum. In 1898 they arrived at Port Said, and during fcm years later were common
in the port.
Ramadan (1936), mentioned that swimming crabs (ll. port’unidae), were
dredged from sandy bottom from the area of AI-Ghaldaq<1 Marine Biological
Station.
Although Lupa pelagica (Linneaus) is recorded in the Hed Sea proper, its
fishery exists in Suez Gulf (lnly. It is fuhed from Suez Bay till EI-Sochna on the
western side of the Culf and frem Suez to Moussa Springs on the eastern side.
It is fished m08tly by crab nets aud a small percentage by otter-trawls from depths
ranging between t to 30 or 40 fathoms and by pur8e-scille from the 8hore.
