Diversity and Distribution of Sea-Anemones (Cnidaria : Actiniaria) in the Estuaries and Mangroves of Odisha, India

Actiniarians, popularly called as 'Sea-Anemones', belongs to the phylum Cnidaria form an important group of intertidal invertebrate distinguished by their habit, habitat and beautiful colouration. This group was not elaborately studied from India. However Annandale (1907 & 1915), Carlgren (1925 & 1949), Parulekar (1968 & 1990), Seshyia and Cuttress (1971), Misra (1975 & 1976) and Bairagi (1998, 2001) worked on this group and a total 40 species of sea anemones belongs to 33 genera and 17 families so far recorded from India.