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.

No abstract

No abstract

Conducting further research and exerting more effort into field studies will aid the detection and recording of new, rare species of invertebrates in the Mediterranean and allow the examination of their biological and environmental characteristics. This article provides information on four species of sea crab (one of which is alien), two species of sea star, one species of sea urchin and two species of octopus, which have all been documented for the first time in Syrian waters. Samples were collected by fishing nets from a coastal area at medium depths (20–630 meters) from Ras al-Basit, Lattakia and Banias during 2020 and 2021. These species are: Actaea savignii (H. Milne Edwards, 1834); Dromia personata (Linnaeus, 1758);Geryon longipes (A. Milne-Edwards, 1882); Homola barbata (Fabricius, 1793); Peltaster placenta (Müller and Troschel, 1842); Chaetaster longipes (Bruzelius, 1805); Sphaerechinus granularis (Lamarck, 1816); Tremoctopus violaceus (Delle Chiaje, 1830);Ocythoe tuberculate (Rafinesque, 1814). Documenting the presence of these rare species is very important from an environmental and scientific perspective, and recording more of them requires coordination with the marine fishing sector in Syria. KEYWORDS Cephalopods, crustaceans, echinoderms, marine biodiversity, non-indigenous species,zoobenthos

The biological structure of the Syrian marine environment still shows a rapid and steady increase in the number of warm water species, many of which have become dominant and invasive. In the latest field data during 2020-2021, the presence of the black sea urchin Diadema antillarum (Philippi, 1845) was recorded for the first time in several locations in Latakia and Ras al-Bassit coast, and its massive spread at depths of 5-8 m, accompanied by invasive species of macroalgae, sponges, crustaceans and mollusks.. It is noteworthy that this species is one of the most widespread and important species of sea urchins in some tropical areas, and this is the first record in the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian coast It is important as it prey on macroalgae and has an effective role in the health of some of the most important areas of biodiversity in the world.

No abstract

The number of aliens crustaceans is constantly increasing within the Syrian marine waters with the increasing of the interest in the marine biodiversity which allowed the discovery of many new species and various unrecorded species. The moon crab Ashtoret lunaris (Forskål, 1775) is recorded for the first time from the Syrian coast in the eastern Mediterranean. Two specimens of the Lessepsian crab A. lunaris were collected from Al-shokaifat area (at the north of Jableh). The specimens were collected by hand from the sandy shore on 7 August 2017.