Baeolidia moebii Bergh, 1888 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) is spreading in the eastern Mediterranean Sea

The bastard grunt Pomadasys incisus (Bowdich, 1825) (Teleostei: Haemulidae) in Cyprus (eastern Mediterranean Sea) - a late arrival or just a neglected species?

“…Indeed, this taxon can show very high abundances only where subtropical habitats and warmer environmental conditions prevail (e.g. Pajuelo et al 2003a, Pajuelo et al 2003b, Fehri-Bedoui and Gharbi 2008, characteristics that may not be present along the entire eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, the Cypriot coastline generally suffers from the absence of proper field studies and local monitoring in recent years has been often significantly complemented by opportunistic observations and citizen science (e.g.…”

“…Moreover, the Cypriot coastline generally suffers from the absence of proper field studies and local monitoring in recent years has been often significantly complemented by opportunistic observations and citizen science (e.g. Kleitou et al 2019, Paz-Sedano et al 2019, tools that already proved to be particularly effective in reporting and monitoring rare native species or non-indigenous ones all over the Mediterranean Sea (e.g. Crocetta et al 2017, Langeneck et al 2019, Osca et al 2019, Tiralongo et al 2020.…”

“…In fact, the striped piggy P. stridens is native to the Indo-Pacific and entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal around 1888, when it was first observed in Port-Saïd (see Carus 1983, Bodilis et al 2013, subsequently colonising the eastern Mediterranean basin up to Greece and being also known from Italy on the basis of a single record (Golani et al 2002, Bilecenoglu et al 2009, Kousteni et al 2019, Servello et al 2019, Bariche and Fricke 2020. Conversely, the bastard grunt P. incisus was originally described from Gambia and is widely distributed along the entire Eastern Atlantic coastline, from South Africa to Galicia (Palacky 1895, Gilchrist and Thompson 1908, Osorio 1909, Bauchot 1963, Bodilis et al 2013, Bañón et al 2014, including the Canary Islands (Vinciguerra 1883, Murray et al 1912, Bianchi 1984, Madeira (Günther 1859, Andrade andAlbuquerque 1935, Ribeiro et al 2005) and Cape Verde Islands (Osorio 1909), but it has also been recorded in the Mediterranean Sea since the middle of the XIX century. In fact, despite its first record in the Mediterranean Sea dating back to 1840 (Guichenot 1850), the species could have been already present in the basin, but simply overlooked until the mid XIX century.…”

“…Such a broad distribution and dispersal capacity of P. incisus was indeed facilitated by its wide ecological requirements. In fact, P. incisus is a gonochoric species characterised by a fast growth and a moderately short-life (up to seven years) (Pajuelo et al 2003a, Pajuelo et al 2003b, inhabiting both marine and brackish waters from 10 to 100 metres depth (Kapiris et al 2008), living on different types of substrates and environments, including hard and sandy bottom, seagrass meadows and even estuaries and lagoons (Bauchot 1963, Golani et al 2006, Kapiris et al 2008) and feeding on a wide range of invertebrates (Ben Tuvia and McKay 1984).…”

Citizen science yields first records of Hippocampus japapigu and Hippocampus denise (Syngnathidae) from Taiwan: A hotspot for pygmy seahorse diversity

“…Social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter), for example, has even been used to identify undescribed species (Skejo and Caballero 2016), as well as detecting illegal introductions of non-native species (Miyazaki et al 2016). Such approaches are likely to prove particularly useful for small-sized, highly camouflaged cryptic taxa such as pygmy seahorses and sea slugs (Paz-Sedano et al 2019). Recognising this, we engaged underwater photographers and dive guides through citizen science via social media in order to improve the current knowledge of pygmy seahorse diversity in Taiwan, where three species: H. bargibanti Whitely, 1970, H. colemani , and H. pontohi have so far been observed by scuba divers (Shao et al 2008; Short et al 2018).…”