Arthropoda: Crustacea: Malacostraca:Decapoda: Brachyura (Freshwater Crabs)

Introduction: Freshwater crabs exclusively belong to the infraorder Brachyura within the crustacean order Decapoda.The morphological characteristics that define Brachyura have been outlined by Schram and Castro (2015), with key features further highlighted in Pati (2024).Distinct from marine crabs, freshwater crabs complete their life cycle entirely in freshwater, independent of the marine environment, and lack free-swimming larval stages, as their large eggs hatch directly into juvenile crabs (Yeo et al., 2008;Ng, 2017).The present article provides an updated version of the checklist of Indian freshwater crabs published in 2024 (Pati, 2024).This checklist incorporates data from published records up to 31 December 2024.However, some members of t h e f a m i l i e s C h a s m o c a r c i n i d a e , Hymenosomatidae, and Sesarmidae, which do not return to the sea to complete their life cycle and have short or no larval stages (Ng, 2017), are excluded from the present checklist for convenience.Instead, they are included in the checklist for Indian marine crabs.Global diversity: Globally, freshwater crabs comprise 1,764 extant species in 316 genera and seven families occurring in all zoogeographical zones except for Antarctica (Yeo et al., 2008; DecaNet eds., 2024). Diversity in India:India is known for 180 species, 50 genera, and 2 families of freshwater crabs (Mitra et al.