Copidognathus balakrishnani Chatterjee, 2000

Records from India. GOA: Chorao Island, North Goa, among algal turf growing on Avicennia mangrove pneumatophores — Chatterjee (2015b) . KERALA: Cochin backwater, among Enteromorpha sp. —Chatterjee (2000); Vembanad lake, upstream— Dev Roy et al. (2009) .

Distribution. ITE— India (Goa).

Remarks. Scanning electron microscopic observations of this species from Goa (west coast of India) was given in Chatterjee (2015b).

This species belongs to ‘ C. balakrishnani group’ (Chatterjee et al. 2012b, Chatterjee 2015b). This group is characterized by short rostrum, small palps; areolae and costae with porose panel; PD with 4 costae; pectinate setae on tibiae I–IV: 2-2-1-1; tarsi III–IV with lateral PAS, medial PAS absent, setae ds 2 on OC, setae ds 3 -ds 5 on PD. Four species viz. Copidognathus balakrishnani Chatterjee, 2000 from India (Chatterjee 2000, 2015b), C. caloglossae Procheş, 2002 reported associated with the algal complex, ‘ Bostrychietum ’, covering the pneumatophores of mangrove Avicennia marina at Richards Bay, Isipingo and Beachwood mangrove forests in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and at Inhambane, Mozambique (Procheş et al. 2001; Procheş 2002; Procheş & Marshall 2002), C. lutarius Bartsch, 2003 reported among the turf of mangrove A. marina on the east coast of the Burrup Peninsula, Dampier, Western Australia (Bartsch 2003a) and C. rhombognathoideus Bartsch, 2006 reported from algae on sediments, as well as pneumatophores and stems of mangroves in Singapore (Bartsch 2006) and from algal turf growing on Rhizophora mangrove pneumatophores at Batu Marang, Brunei Darussalam (Chatterjee et al. 2012b) was assigned to this natural group (Chatterjee 2015b). All these species were reported from low salinity zones associated with mangroves and algae (Chatterjee 2015b).