This study reports an updated checklist of marine shrimps found along the Indian coast, including the Lakshadweep and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. A total of 364 species classified under 128 genera belonging to the order Decapoda is reported, thus adding 27 species to the existing checklist of 337 species. Marine shrimps are classified under two suborders of the order Decapoda, viz., Dendrobranchiata and Pleocyemata, and the two suborders account for 155 (42.6 %) and 209 species (57.4 %) of these 364 species, respectively. Pleocyemata is represented by three infraorders, viz., Axiidea, Caridea and Stenopodidea, while Caridea has a maximum of 199 reported species. Among the 12 superfamilies, Penaeoidea contributed to 38.13% (135 species) followed by Paleaemonidea with 18.07% (64 species). All other superfamilies were found to contribute less than 12%. Superfamilies, Bresilloidea and Psalidopodoidea had only single species representatives (0.28% each). The final list was compiled after reviewing all existing literature including monographs, catalogues, checklists, websites and fishery reports. The scientific names were validated with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) database. A total of 25 issues were identified from the previous checklist out of which 19 species have been updated with the correct, accepted names and six species have been removed from the previous list.

We compile an up-to-date checklist of 26 species of marine snakes known from the Indian coastlines. We furnish information on the original orthography, authorship, date of publication, current binominal representation, synonymy and chresonymy lists for each recognized taxon. In addition, we provide details of name-bearing types, repository and type locality (both original and subsequent restrictions where applicable) of the prevailing nomen for all recognized species. We summarise the history of research on Indian marine snakes from Linnaeus to the present day, including taxonomic and regional treatises, and highlight the taxonomic flux. We also provide a revised key for this group to facilitate easier identification and support effective conservation.

Photographic evidence of some important coral diseases (black band disease, black disease/Terpios hoshinota, white syndrome, pink line syndrome, pink spots, invertebrate galls, skeletal growth anomalies, tissue loss), coral competing sponges, and coral–algal phase shifts (competitive overgrowth of the seaweed Caulerpa spp. over corals and competitive scleractinian interactions such as with Halimeda spp.) have been collected during field observations in a few atolls within the Lakshadweep archipelago, Arabian Sea. Further, earlier reports of similar diseases and other stressors within the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and its contiguous international waters, including the reefs of the Maldives and Sri Lanka, are highlighted and their distributional ranges are shown.

Our study documents the outbreak of a coral-killing sponge Terpios hoshinota in the coral reefs of Lakshadweep archipelago and highlights that it has further extended its territory into the isolated atolls of Arabian Sea and maybe a growing threat to the existing coral reefs in the region.