The arrival of a second ‘Lessepsian sprinter’? A first record of the red cornetfish Fistularia petimba in the Eastern Mediterranean

Here we document the first occurrence of the red cornetfish Fistularia petimba in the Levantine Basin. This species identity has been confirmed using morphological and molecular tools, and is presented here with simplified illustrations for accurate future identification. This report voices a concern regarding another blitz invasion of a cornetfish into the Mediterranean, following its Lessepsian sprinter congeneric, F. commersonii, one of the most efficacious invaders of the Mediterranean Sea. The wide intra-specific genetic distances found between sympatric F. petimba specimens in the available literature resources may also demonstrate the presence of cryptic diversity within this taxon

Desalination effluents and the establishment of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890 in the south -eastern Mediterranean

A decade long monitoring programme has revealed a flourishing population of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla in the vicinity of outfalls of desalination plants off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The first specimens were collected in 2010, thus predating all previously published records of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. A decade-long disturbance regime related to the construction and operation of the plants may have had a critical role in driving the population growth.University of Palermo FFR 201

New records of rare species in the Mediterranean Sea (October 2020)

This Collective Article presents information about 21 taxa belonging to seven Phyla (one Ochrophyta, one Porifera, three Cnidaria, two Arthropoda, three Mollusca, one Echinodermata, and ten Chordata) and extending from the western Mediterranean Sea to the Levantine Sea. The new records were reported from nine countries as follows: Spain: first records of three deep-sea species from the Blanes Canyon along the Catalan margin, namely the gorgonian Placogorgia coronata, the bivalve Acesta excavata, and the Azores rockling Gaidropsarus granti; Italy: first record of the mesopsammic nudibranch Embletonia pulchra from Ligurian shallow-waters; first record of the deep-sea carnivorous sponge Lycopodina hypogea from the north-central Tyrrhenian Sea, living in dense clusters over dead black corals; new records of the Portuguese man o’ war Physalia physalis from Sardinian and Sicilian waters; first Italian record of the large asteroid Coronaster briareus from the Ionian Sea; first record of the white grouper Epinephelus aeneus in the northernmost point of the Adriatic Sea; Croatia: first record of the gastropod Haliotis mykonosensis for the Adriatic Sea; Malta: new sightings of Physalia physalis from Maltese waters; Libya: first record of the sand crab Albunea carabus from two localities along the Libyan coast; Greece: first records of the deep-sea black coral Parantipathes larix from the eastern Mediterranean Sea; first verified record of the agujon needlefish Tylosurus imperialis in the Hellenic Ionian Sea; first confirmed record of the brown algae Treptacantha squarrosa in the eastern Mediterranean Sea; new records of three deep-sea fish species from the Aegean Sea, namely the bluntnose sixgill shark Hexanchus griseus, the Atlantic pomfret Brama brama, and the rudderfish Centrolophus niger; new record of the tripletail Lobotes surinamensis from Lesvos Island; new record of the shrimp Brachycarpus biunguiculatus from the gut content of the non-indigenous lionfish Pterois miles; Turkey: new record of the imperi- al blackfish Schedophilus ovalis from Turkish waters; Lebanon: first record of the slender sunfish Ranzania laevis, stranded along the Lebanese coast; Israel: new record, after about 60 years from the last catch, of the spotted dragonet Callionymus maculatus.peer-reviewe

New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (July 2019)

This is the second collective paper issued in 2019, currently amalgamates new knowledge on the Mediterranean geographic distributions of 17 species from five phyla (six aliens, three cosmopolitans, two east Atlantic records and six natives). The acknowledged species were reported from ten countries, mentioned here from west to east: Spain: first report of the east Atlantic grouper Cephalopholis taeniops in the western Mediterranean and an inclusion of Pontarachna puntulum and Litarachna communis to the pontarachnid fauna of Spain; Morocco: first record of Solea senegalensis from the Moroccan Mediterranean coast; Algeria: a valid confirmation for the presence of Sardinella maderensis; Malta: a first record of the Red Sea stomatopod Erugosquilla massavensis; Italy: a rare observation of the crab Paragalene longicrura from Siciliy and a further integration of the alien brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus to the commercial catch in Sicily; Montenegro: a first record of the Lessepsian bigfin reef squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana from the Adriatic Sea; Turkey: northernmost documentation of the Mediterranean flatworm Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii in the Aegean Sea; Israel: a solid confirmation for the population establishment of both the alien rock shrimp Sicyonia lancifer and two species of angelfish, and a first and deepest record of the crystalline goby Odondebuenia balearica; Lebanon: first record of the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca; Syria: first records of the crown jellyfish Nausithoe punctate and the smallscale codlet Bregmaceros nectabanus

First record of Epitonium (Parviscala) vaillanti (Jousseaume, 1912) (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Epitoniidae) in the Mediterranean Sea

Epitonium (Parviscala) vaillanti (Jousseaume, 1912), a species previously known only from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, is recorded for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea. This new Erythrean alien was found in the course of examination of unidentified specimens from Mediterranean coast of Israel, showed morphological features unknown to any previously recorded Mediterranean epitonid species. To confirm identification, morphological comparison with the syntypic serie of Avalitiscala vaillanti Jousseaume, 1912, stored in the Museum d\u2019Histoire Naturelle de Paris (MNHN) was performed and some remarks of the taxonomy of the species are discussed

The first Indo-West Pacific rock shrimp (Crustacea, Decapoda, Sicyoniidae) in the Mediterranean Sea

Sicyonia lancifer (Olivier, 1811), a widely distributed Indo-West Pacific rock shrimp, was recently collected off the Mediterranean coasts of Turkey and Israel. This is the first record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. The species is illustrated, and differentiated from its native Mediterranean congener, S. carinata (Brunnich, 1768)

Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen 1948

Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Figs 3, 4, 5, 6) Synonym section: Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948: 12, fig. 3.—Myers, 1970: 141, fig. 1–2.—Myers, 1972: 790; 1981: 218.— Ledoyer, 1973: 40.—Griffiths, 1974 b: 282.—Asari & Myers, 1982: 252, figs 9–10.—Lowry & Stoddart, 2003: 70 (catalogue). Grandidierella megnae. —Chilton, 1921: 548, fig. 10.—Stephensen, 1933: 434.—Shoemaker, 1935: 70. Unciolella lunata.—Schellenberg, 1928: 669, fig. 207. Grandidierella bonnieri.—K.H. Barnard, 1935: 299.—Panikkar & Aiyar, 1937: 294.—Schellenberg, 1938: 215.—Shoemaker, 1948: 11, fig. 3.—K.H. Barnard, 1951: 708; 1952: 279, fig. 1.—Ruffo, 1958: 58, figs 8, 9.—Nayar, 1959: 38, pl. 14, figs 1–5; 1966: 161, fig. 17 f. —Ledoyer, 1967: 137, fig. 28 a; 1968: 287, fig. 25 b.—Griffiths, 1973: 283; 1974 a: 228. Material examined. Israel. Haifa Bay 32 ° 55 ’ 07’’ N, 35 ° 04’ 33 ’’ E, depth 7.85 m, 7 August 2014, 8 males, 48 females, 171 immature (1 male, 6 females, 27 immature; 3 males, 29 females, 99 immature; 4 males, 13 females, 45 immature, respectively in the three replicates). 1 male, 2 females, 10 immature (SMNH TAU AR- 29389), the balance retained in the Zoological Museum of the University of Palermo (MZPA-AMPH-0008). (The bold-italic parts are diagnostic descriptions). Diagnosis: Male, 3.3 mm (MZPA-AMPH-0008m). Head lateral cephalic lobes apically truncate. Antenna 1 flagellum with about 19 articles; accessory flagellum with one long and one distal rudimentary article. Antenna 2 with few long setae. Lower lip with fine setae only. Maxilla 1 inner plate without setae. Mandible, palp article 3 subequal to 2, posterior margin substraight, setae distal. Pereonites 1–3 with apically acute sternal spines. Gnathopod 1 enlarged in males only; coxa unproduced anterodistally. Gnathopod 1 coxa ventral margin without small spine, basis robust, half or more as broad as long, without a spine, anterior margin without stridulating ridges, posterodistal margin with setae sparse, anterodistal margin with flange weak; ischium anterior margin without flange, posterior margin with setae sparse; merus not greatly elongated, fused along its entire length with carpus, posterior margin with sparse setae, without posterodistal spine; carpus twice length of propodus, anterior margin without stridulating ridges, with setae sparse, anterior margin with no spine, a row of setae on inner face, posterior margin with submarginal spine (lacking in smaller males), strong posterodistal spine, and smaller obtuse distal spine ; propodus, anterior margin weakly setiferous, posterior margin straight or evenly convex, palm absent; dactylus more than half length of propodus. Gnathopod 2 subchelate; basis anterodistal margin without flange, posterodistal margin without robust setae, with few setae along length of basis; merus not enlarged or produced away from carpus; carpus longer than propodus, anterior margin not lobate, with a few spaced setae; propodus with few setae, palm with pair of robust setae defining palm. Pereopod 3 – 7 absent in all the Mediterranean collected specimens. Uropod 1 rami subequal, peduncle much longer than broad, distoventral spine one fifth length of peduncle. Uropod 2 biramous; peduncle without distoventral spine. Uropod 3 uniramous, ramus at least twice length of peduncle. Telson with distal fine setae only. Female, 3.25 mm (MZPA-AMPH-0008f) (sexually dimorphic characters). Sternal spines absent. Gnathopod 1 basis slender, much less than half as broad as long; carpus a little longer than propodus; propodus palm present, evenly continuous with posterior margin, posterior margin with three robust setae; dactylus significantly overlapping palm. Remarks. Among all the Aoridae known from Mediterranean Sea (Myers 1982; Christodoulou 2013) and Red Sea (Ruffo 1959; Sorbe et al. 2002), only Grandidierella genus has together uropod 3 uniramous and gnathopod 1 carpochelate in male. The only Grandidierella species, recorded in area adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, are G. japonica from Atlantic coast of France (Jourde et al. 2013) and G. bonnieroides from the Red Sea side of Suez Canal (Schellenberg 1928). These two species can be delimited by the presence/absence of the transverse ridges on the anterior margin of carpus of the gnathopods 1 in male, present in G. japonica and absent in G. bonnieroides. Further, the presence of a submarginal spine on the posterior margin of the carpus of the male gnathopod 1 is a character that distinguishes G. bonnieroides from the other closely related species (Ledoyer 1967; Myers 2009).Published as part of Brutto, Sabrina Lo, Iaciofano, Davide, Lubinevsky, Hadas & Galil, Bella S., 2016, Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae) — first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea, pp. 518-528 in Zootaxa 4092 (4) on pages 521-525, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/26188

Grandidierella Coutiere 1904

Genus Grandidierella Coutière, 1904Published as part of Brutto, Sabrina Lo, Iaciofano, Davide, Lubinevsky, Hadas & Galil, Bella S., 2016, Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae) — first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea, pp. 518-528 in Zootaxa 4092 (4) on page 521, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/26188

Testing foraminiferal environmental quality indices along a well-defined organic matter gradient in the Eastern Mediterranean

International audienc

The morphological diversity within a species can obscure the correct identification

Critical points of various diagnostic characters and a paucity of information relating to the geographical distribution of several marine species can hinder real species delimitation, particularly if they are supposed to be cosmopolitan. Such constraints characterize many amphipod species and are mainly due to the variation in morphological characters during growth. Specifically, the benthic filter-feeding corophiid Cheiriphotis mediterranea Myers, 1983 displays different shapes for the male gnathopod 2 as it grows. This variation has hitherto never been described but an extensive sampling has provided us with the opportunity of studying it in detail. More than six thousand individuals, belonging to C. mediterranea, were collected along the Israeli coast during a five-year soft-bottom monitoring survey, comprising 282 sites at a depth between 4 and 37 m. One of the objectives of this study was to integrate the original description of C. mediterranea with the identification of definite six morphotypes, which alternate during growth. A mtDNA Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I sequence was obtained, representing the first molecular datum for the genus Cheiriphotis. The results offer the possibility of including variable morphological characters and molecular sequences in the identification process. Throughout the survey, C. mediterranea was confirmed to be one of the most abundant five species in the study area, in particular in Haifa Bay, where the environmental conditions are stressful. Barely-known abundance and distribution notes relating to this species are reported in this paper; a putative role of bioindicator is also suggested