New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (October, 2014)

Abstract

The Collective Article ‘New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records’ of the Mediterranean Marine Science journal offers the means to publish biodiversity records in the Mediterranean Sea. The current article is divided in two parts, for records of alien and native species respectively. The new records of alien species include: the red alga Asparagopsis taxiformis (Crete and Lakonicos Gulf) (Greece); the red alga Grateloupia turuturu (along the Israeli Mediterranean shore); the mantis shrimp Clorida albolitura (Gulf of Antalya, Turkey); the mud crab Dyspanopeus sayi (Mar Piccolo of Taranto, Ionian Sea); the blue crab Callinectes sapidus (Chios Island, Greece); the isopod Paracerceis sculpta (northern Aegean Sea, Greece); the sea urchin Diadema setosum (Gökova Bay, Turkey); the molluscs Smaragdia souverbiana, Murex forskoehlii, Fusinus verrucosus, Circenita callipyga, and Aplysia dactylomela (Syria); the cephalaspidean mollusc Haminoea cyanomarginata (Baia di Puolo, Massa Lubrense, Campania, southern Italy); the topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva (Civitavecchia, Tyrrhenian Sea); the fangtooth moray Enchelycore anatine (Plemmirio marine reserve, Sicily); the silver-cheeked toadfish Lagocephalus sceleratus (Saros Bay, Turkey; and Ibiza channel, Spain); the Indo-Pacific ascidian Herdmania momusin Kastelorizo Island (Greece); and the foraminiferal Clavulina multicam erata (Saronikos Gulf, Greece). The record of L. sceleratus in Spain consists the deepest (350-400m depth) record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. The new records of native species include: first record of the ctenophore Cestum veneris in Turkish marine waters; the presence of Holothuria tubulosa and Holothuria polii in the Bay of Igoumenitsa (Greece); the first recorded sighting of the bull ray Pteromylaeus bovinus in Maltese waters; and a new record of the fish Lobotes surinamensis from Maliakos Gulf.

New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (October 2015)

“…10). The diagnostic features and substrate agree with the find- in Katsanevakis et al (2014a), respectively. The spines were black as in Latsoudis in Tsiamis et al (2015) (no gray spines were observed) and the depth corresponds to another publication (e.g.…”

First record of the fangtooth moray, Enchelycore anatina (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae), from Maltese waters, central Mediterranean

“…This occurrence is evident in the online video clip taken of the same individual, and was also demonstrated by one individual of E. anatina recently fi lmed by one of the Authors (G. Mazza) off the eastern coastline of Sicily (21 October 2014) (Fig. 2), from the same area where the species was previously recorded (Katsanevakis et al 2014). One may speculate that the co-occurrence of the two species is not coincidental and that some form of synergistic collaboration between the two is taking place, although the hypothesis has not been tested in the fi eld and is simply based on two empirical observations.…”

“…Most recently, additional records of the species have emerged from eastern sectors of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Iskenderun Bay in Turkey and the island of Zakynthos in the eastern Ionian Sea, suggesting that the species has established itself within these areas, whilst new records of the species are also coming from more central parts of the Mediterranean, indicating the further westward expansion of Enchelycore anatina within the same Basin. Recently, in fact, the species has been reported at numerous additional locations along the eastern Adriatic (Dulčić et al 2014), along the Italian coast of Puglia (Guidetti et al 2012) and along the eastern coast of the island of Sicily (Katsanevakis et al 2014), both in the western Ionian Sea.…”

First record of an invasive Lessepsian migrant, Lagocephalus sceleratus (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae), in the Sea of Marmara

“…Milazzo et al (2012), Ben Souissi et al (2014, and Kara et al (2015) provided further evidence of its occurrence along north-African coasts. In addition to the above-mentioned records, Katsanevakis et al (2014a) reported a single specimen from north-western Mediterranean over muddy bottoms in the Ibiza channel, Spain and they confi rmed its entry into the western basin of the Mediterranean. In addition, the fast movement to the western basin of the Mediterranean, the silver-cheeked toadfi sh continues its expansion to the north in the eastern basin.…”

“…In addition, the fast movement to the western basin of the Mediterranean, the silver-cheeked toadfi sh continues its expansion to the north in the eastern basin. Katsanevakis et al (2014a) reported the occurrence of L. sceleratus in Saros Bay located in northern Aegean Sea. The above-mentioned paper represents the northernmost report from the Aegean Sea of the silver-cheeked toadfi sh.…”