New records of rarely reported species in the Mediterranean Sea (December 2025)


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Toma M., Agıus D., Azzurro E., Bo M., Carrı T. D., Deval M. C., ...More

MEDITERRANEAN MARINE SCIENCE, vol.26, no.4, pp.972-994, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 26 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2025
  • Journal Name: MEDITERRANEAN MARINE SCIENCE
  • Journal Indexes: Scopus, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), BIOSIS
  • Page Numbers: pp.972-994
  • Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
  • Akdeniz University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This Collective Article presents information on 19 species with records in nine countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Libya, Malta,

Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia and Türkiye), spanning the whole Mediterranean Sea. The recorded species belong to six phyla: Ochrophyta

(1 species), Brachiopoda (1 species), Bryozoa (1 species), Mollusca (3 species), Arthropoda (7 species), and Chordata

(6 species). The brown alga Carpomitra costata var. mediterranea is reported for the first time in the eastern basin along the

Turkish coast. The first detailed characterisation of the populations of the brachiopod Gryphus vitreus is made in Antalya Bay

(eastern Mediterranean Sea), while the deep-sea bryozoan Kinetoskias smitti is spotted in ten localities along the Italian coast.

Among molluscs, the first massive bloom of the pteropod Creseis acicula in Libyan water and the first record of the cephalopod

Neorossia caroli from the northern Levant Sea are documented, while three specimens of the nudibranch Cumanotus beaumonti

are photographed in the northern Adriatic Sea. Considering arthropods, four species (Bathynectes maravigna, Euchirograpsus

liguricus, Paragalene longicrura, and Typton spongicola) are morphologically and genetically identified from the Gulfs of Naples

and Salerno, the northernmost record of the crab Ocypode cursor in the Mediterranean Sea is presented, and the first records of

two rare species, the shrimp Gnathophyllum elegans and the pycnogonid Anoplodactylus massiliensis, are reported in Cyprus and

in the Strait of Sicily, respectively. Finally, among chordates, the rarely observed guitarfish Rhinobatos rhinobatos and the moray

Gymnothorax unicolor are reported from Maltese waters, the mako shark Isurus oxyrinchus was fortuitously filmed in Croatia,

the distribution of the rare blenny Hypleurochilus bananensis is extended westward to the Iberian Peninsula, and the bastard grunt Pomadasys incisus and the gobiid Zebrus pallaoroi are firstly documented in the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea and in Tunisia,

respectively.