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Language: English
The meiofauna of Little Andaman is quite rich and varied with a large number of species of diverse invertebrate groups of animals inhabiting the algae, sand and mud sediments in the littoral region. Our present knowledge on the taxonomy, ecology and distribution of the meiofauna of these habitats on the island is limited to the few works of Rao (1970, 1972, 1975, 1980, 1989) and Salvini-Plawen and Rao (1973). Hence, a detailed investigation of the meiofauna of Little Andaman was considered necessary to have a comprehensive idea of the nature of the faunal elements of the island. Keeping this in view, under the Annual Plan of work of the Zoological Survey of India for the years 1989-91, a faunistic survey of the island was undertaken, diverse groups of the meiofauna collected and the material studied. Based on the results of the investgation, the present paper gives a systematic account of 120 species of the different groups, of which 8 species are described here as new to science. Part of the material of the different groups still remains to be studied in detail, identified and reported.
