First record of the alien polychaete Naineris setosa (Scolecida; Orbiniidae) in Tyrrhenian Sea (Western Mediterranean)

Abstract

During a survey in Santa Gilla, a Tyrrhenian lagoon located in southern Sardinia, several specimens of the alien polychaete Naineris setosa were found. 1) A brief description of the specimens is presented; they possess the rounded prostomium and the crenulated capillary chaetae typical of the genus, but they are characterized by the absolute lacking of uncini or subuluncini in thoracic neuropodia, which is unique trait within Naineris; 2) some environmental characteristics of the collection site are measured; 3) the description and the distribution of the specimens are also provided.

How complex is the Naineris setosa species complex? First integrative study of a presumed cosmopolitan and invasive annelid (Sedentaria: Orbiniidae)

“…with two records reported from the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian Seas. This corroborated the earlier records of the species in the Mediterranean and corroborated its alien status (Blake & Giangrande 2011;Khedhri et al 2014;Atzori et al 2016;Arduini et al 2022;Rebai et al 2022;Struck et al 2023). The species was believed to have been introduced in the Mediterranean Sea due to aquaculture (Blake & Giangrande 2011) and shipping as in the case of possible regional introductions within the Mediterranean (Khedri et al 2014).…”

“…Naineris setosa s. str. can be considered established in the Mediterranean since later records expanded its distribution to Egypt (Struck et al 2023), Tunisia (Khedhri et al 2014;Rebai et al 2022), and the Adriatic (Blake & Giangrande 2011), Ionian (Arduini et al 2022), and Tyrrhenian (Atzori et al 2016) seas. Naineris setosa was first reported in Brazil by Nonato (1981); since then, the number of Brazilian records increased (Amaral et al 2006(Amaral et al -2022.…”

“…Even though most of the confirmed invasive polychaetes belong to Serpulidae and Spionidae, some orbiniids, such as Scoloplos capensis (Day, 1961), Leitoscoloplos kerguelensis (McIntosh, 1885), and Naineris quadraticeps Day, 1965 were also considered as invasive (Çinar 2013). Naineris setosa was repeatedly reported as an invasive species in the Mediterranean region (Blake & Giangrande 2011;Khedhri et al 2014;Dean & Blake 2015;Atzori et al 2016); however, because none of the studies was supported by molecular data, the species should be considered as cryptogenic.…”

Non-indigenous species (NIS) of polychaetes (Annelida: Polychaeta) from the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of the Iberian Peninsula: an annotated checklist

“…The number of NIS in the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula was similar to those from other countries from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean, where 19 NIS of polychaetes were recorded from Cyprus [30], 16 were reported from Greece [26] and 37 are established along Italian coasts [31,[56][57][58]. With just two NIS, the inventory is much less in Malta [59], but it is a much smaller country, whereas the list from Turkey of 66 species is by far the largest, [24].…”

Polychaete assemblages in a tropical hypersaline coastal lagoon of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the rainy season

“…Naineris setosa and Syllis lagunae contributed to 80 % of the density in station 6 (39.93 % and 39.24 %, respectively). Despite the wide distribution of N. setosa in subtropical and tropical waters in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific (see Blake & Giangrande, 2011 and references cited therein; Díaz-Díaz, Vanegas-Espinosa, Cárdenas-Oliva, & Liñero-Arana, 2012), its faculty to adapt to new environments (e.g., the Mediterranean Sea, where it is an invasive species: Blake & Giangrande, 2011;Belal & Ghobashy, 2012;Khedhri, Lavesque, Bonifácio, Djabou, & Afli, 2014;Atzori, López, Addis, Sabatini, & Cabiddu, 2016), and its capacity to live in different substrata (e.g., Hernández-Alcántara & Solís-Weiss, 1995;Díaz-Díaz, Bone, & López-Ordáz, 2014), in Río Lagartos it was only found at station 6, suggesting that factors additional to substrate type may have prevented its wider distribution. Syllidae was the dominant family in terms of abundance in Río Lagartos, a common pattern in estuarine systems (Omena & Creed, 2004;Hernández-Alcántara et al, 2011), especially in those with carbonate sediments (Granados-Barba, Solís-Weiss, Tovar-Hernández, & Ochoa-Rivera, 2003;Tovar-Hernández, Hernández-Alcántara, & Solís-Weiss, 2008).…”