{"id":122920,"date":"2026-09-05T15:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=122920"},"modified":"2026-09-05T15:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:58:12","slug":"new-species-of-pistol-shrimp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/new-species-of-pistol-shrimp\/","title":{"rendered":"New Species of Pistol Shrimp"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>New Species of Pistol Shrimp Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) recently discovered two new species of pistol shrimp named Alpheus vembanadi and Alpheus hari in the Kochi backwaters.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Alpheus vembanadi and Alpheus hari<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are two new species of <\/span><b>pistol shrimp.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were discovered in the <\/span><b>Kochi backwaters of Kerala<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The specimens were collected <\/span><b>from gillnets,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a <\/span><b>traditional fishing method used in the backwaters.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first species,<\/span><b> Alpheus vembanadi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, has been<\/span><b> named after the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/vembanad-lake\/\" target=\"_blank\">Vembanad backwaters<\/a>. \u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is found in the Kochi backwaters throughout the year and can <\/span><b>survive in waters with salinity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> levels of up to 31 parts per thousand (ppt).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second species, <\/span><b>Alpheus hari, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was named in honour of Dr. M. Harikrishnan, Senior Professor at CUSAT\u2019s School of Industrial Fisheries.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The species has a notable ability to <\/span><b>tolerate changes in salinity.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers found it in waters with very low salinity, while laboratory studies showed that it can also survive in freshwater.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Pistol Shrimp<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pistol shrimp, also known as <\/span><b>snapping shrimp<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are a crustacean in the family Alpheidae.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are hundreds of species found <\/span><b>all over the world, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but <\/span><b>most species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are found in reefs and seagrass beds in <\/span><b>temperate and tropical regions.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have<\/span><b> one small claw <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called a <\/span><b>pincer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and a much <\/span><b>larger claw-like snapper.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Some shrimps have snappers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that are <\/span><b>bigger than half its body.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>snapper <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the shrimp\u2019s <\/span><b>weapon for killing or stunning prey.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, they<\/span><b> don\u2019t grab or choke prey the way a crab does<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Instead, the snapper has a complex mechanism that gives it much more power.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By <\/span><b>rapidly snapping the snapper shut<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the shrimp <\/span><b>creates a cavitation bubble <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><b>collapses with a loud snapping sound.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This snap can <\/span><b>stun or even kill small prey<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which the<\/span><b> shrimp then consumes.\u00a0 <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etvbharat.com\/en\/state\/cusat-researchers-discover-two-new-pistol-shrimp-species-in-kochi-backwaters-enn26090403534\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>ETVB<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alpheus vembanadi and Alpheus hari are two new species of pistol shrimp discovered in the Kochi backwaters of Kerala. Read more about New Species of Pistol Shrimp, Discovery, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":122998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10039,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-122920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-new-species-of-pistol-shrimp","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122920"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123020,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122920\/revisions\/123020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}