A Compendium of Crustaceans of Pakistani Waters Living in Partnership

The Pakistani coastal area is known to host a high diversity of marine habitats, flora/fauna yet a region that remains understudied in terms of crustacean symbionts as parasites and commensals. It is suggested that apparent rarity of these study of symbionts is probably a spurious phenomenon resulting from inadequate collecting methods. However, there is an infinite variety of associations between different species of aquatic animals like Crustacea and other organisms. The aim of present compendium is to update the information for the 270 symbiotic aquatic Crustacea from Pakistani area, according to recent taxonomic advances. It aims to bring together into one volume the disparate information of Pakistani marine/fresh water species. This study adds the inter-organismal relationships in symbiont taxa living together to 251 species known from Pakistan adding 19 new records and 7 species new to science. Identifications of hosts as cited in older literature are updated to current nomenclature. A result of study of crustacean parasites in the samples of galathoids collected by International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) 1965-66 is added as separate chapter.