Many penaeoid prawns are of considerable value for the fishing industry and aquaculture operations. The annual estimated average landing of prawns from the fishery in India was 3.98 lakh tonnes (2008-10) of which 60% were contributed by penaeid prawns. An additional 1.5 lakh tonnes is produced from aquaculture. During 2010-11, India exported US $ 2.8 billion worth marine products, of which shrimp contributed 3.09% in volume and 69.5% in value of the total export. With nearly 438 known species from the Indian subcontinent, the order Decapoda, comprising the suborders Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata, is the most diverse of the Eucaridean orders containing almost all the best known edible and commercially important prawns. The checklist of prawns contains 142 species under 43 genera of the suborder Dendrobranchiata and 295 species under 88 genera of the suborder Pleocyemata. Since previous compilation of the fauna, several additional species have been recorded. The present annotated checklist is intended to update the scientific nomenclature of all the species recorded from Indian EEZ including the fresh and brackishwater species and to assist ecologists and crustacean taxonomists in future systematic work in view of the important role of prawns in the ecosystem as well as the importance of the resource from the fishery and trade point of view. The common English names and geographic distribution of species have also been included.

Prawn fauna, checklist, Decapoda, Dendrobranchiata, Pleocyemata.