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Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences Vol. 3(1) pp.232-239, February 2012
Available online Available online http://www.globalresearchjournals.org/journal/?a=journal&id=jabs
Copyright ©2012 Global Research Journals.
Full length Research.
MORPHOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GIANT AFRICAN RIVER PRAWN, Macrobrachium vollenhovenii (Herklot, 1857) CAUGHT FROM WARRI RIVER COAST
Olele, N.F. and Kalayolo, P. E.
Fisheries Department, Delta State University, Asaba Campus Nigeria. P.O. Box 1110, Asaba, Nigeria.
GSM 08062905921. e-mail: florenceolele@Yahoo.Com.
Accepted 2nd October 2011.
Abstract
Relationship between body parts and total length of Macrobrachium vollenhovenii was studied for six months. Quantitative data collected from the specimens were analyzed through power function, after logarithm transformation. A total number of 151 male and 245 female specimens were examined. This gave a proportion of 1:1.6 male to female sex ratio. Total length range for male specimens (4.80 to 20.90 cm) was higher than those for female (2.40 to 17.00 cm) specimens. Body weight range for females (4.60 to 61.60 g) was lower than the range (3.70 to 86.70 g) for males. The descriptive statistics derived from the measurements revealed that the percentage contribution of body parts for male specimens were generally higher than those for females, except for the tail and first to fifth leg lengths, where the values were higher in the later than the former specimens. Percentage contribution of body parts revealed that the highest percentage was contributed by the right antenna accounting for 18.13 %, while the left antenna also contributed 14.75 % both in female specimens. The highest percentage contribution for male specimens, was realized for the body weight accounting for 25.74 % followed by the body depth accounting for 14.55 %. Linear relationships between total length and lengths of various body parts revealed statistical significance (p<0.05) with varying ‘r’ values thus: right cheliped length for male (r =0.51), body depth for male (r =0.62), and carapace length for male (r =0.58). The ‘r’ values for the second, fourth and fifth male leg lengths were (r =0.56, r =0.58 and r =0.54) respectively. Other less significant values were observed for carapace length for female r =0.42 and, left cheliped length for female (r =0.43) etc. The significant relationships observed in the present study indicate that total length could reliably be used to predicted values of some body parts in male prawns caught in Warri River.
Key words: Morphometric, Characteristics, Giant, Macrobrachium vollenhovenii, Warri, River