New Alien Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (October 2020)

Title:
New Alien Mediterranean Biodiversity Records (October 2020)

Authors:
Michail RAGKOUSIS, Nardjes ABDELALI, Ernesto AZZURRO, Ali BADREDDINE, Michael BARICHE, Ghazi BITAR, Fabio CROCETTA, Francesco DENITTO, Markos DIGENIS, Radhouan El ZRELLI, Ayşegül ERGENLER, Ana FORTIČ, Vasilis GEROVASILEIOU, Samir GRIMES, Stelios KATSANEVAKIS, Cengiz KOÇAK, Cataldo LICCHELLI, Evgenios LOUDAROS, Francesco MASTROTOTARO, Borut MAVRIČ, Sinan MAVRUK, Anastasia MILIOU, Federica MONTESANTO, Panayotis OVALIS, Miquel PONTES, Lotfi RABAOUI, Nail SEVİNGEL, Andrea SPINELLI, Francesco TIRALONGO, Alexandros TSATIRIS, Cemal TURAN, Dyana VITALE, Ferhat YALGIN, Sercan YAPICI and Argyro ZENETOS

Abstract:
This article includes 23 new records of alien and cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to 4 Phyla (Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda and Mollusca), distributed from the Alboran to the Levantine Sea. Records are reported from eight countries listed from West to East as follows: Algeria: new records of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus; Spain: further spread and establishment of the sea slug Lamprohaminoea ovalis in continental shores; Tunisia: first record of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Gabes; Italy: a new occurrence of the pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus in Northern Ionian waters; first record of Cephalopholis taeniops in the Ionian Sea; first record of the redlip blenny, Ophioblennius atlanticus in the Ionian Sea; Slovenia: first record of the isopod Paranthura japonica in Slovenia; Greece: first record of the molluscs Eunaticina papilla, Plocamopherus ocellatus and the fish Cheilodipterus novemstriatus; first record of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata in Kriti; the long-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum in the Ionian Sea; Turkey: first record of the sea spider Ammothea hilgendorfi; the stomatopod Cloridina cf. ichneumon; the fishes Pempheris rhomboidea from the Sea of Marmara and Paranthias furcifer from the Aegean Sea; Lebanon: new records of the fishes Arothron hispidus, Rachycentron canadum, Heniochus intermedius and Acanthurus monroviae; first record of Acanthostracion polygonius. The records of Cloridina cf. ichneumon from southern Turkey and the fish Acanthostracion polygonius from Lebanon, both being the first Mediterranean records, are noteworthy.