New Record of Macrobrachium lar (Fabricius, 1798) (Crustacea: Decapoda: Palaemonidae) from Al-Hammar Marsh, Southern Iraq

Abstract

A species of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium was newly recorded from Al-Hammar marsh, Southern Iraq. Morphological features accompanied by 18 S r DNA analyses indicated that the species is Macrobrachum lar. DNA sequences of specimens of this species from the marsh is deposited at the GenBank for DNA as a new global isolate and was published by The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ). M. lar inhabit deep sections of streams and brackish water, adults live in freshwater, while juveniles can be found in brackish or saltwater, the total length of M. lar recorded in this study was ranged between 72 and 109 mm for males and between 61 and 93 mm for females.