Confirmed occurrence of moontail bullseye, Priacanthus hamrur (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Priacanthidae), in the Mediterranean Sea with first record off the coast of Turkey

Abstract

A new Lessepsian migrant, moontail bullseye, Priacanthus hamrur (Forsskål, 1775), is recorded for the second time from the Mediterranean Sea, and for the first time from Turkey. A single male specimen of P. hamrur was caught at a depth of about 30 m, off the Konacık harbour (Arsuz coast, Gulf of Iskenderun, Turkey) on 18 December 2017, by a longline. The present paper reports the confirmed record of P. hamrur in the eastern Mediterranean with the first record off the coast of Turkey. This species is probably a Red Sea immigrant entering the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. With the present report, the number of priacanthid species reported in the Mediterranean Sea has reached four.

Range Extension of Priacanthus sagittarius Starnes, 1988 Southeastern Mediterranean Coast of Turkey

“…The occurrence of P. sagittarus in the Mediterranean Sea is most evidently due to migration from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal (Goren, Stern, Galil, & Diamant, 2010;Golani, Sonin, & Edelist, 2011). While a single specimen does not necessarily indicate the existence of an established population in Iskenderun Bay, the past and present records of two Pricanthid species (Gürlek, Ergüden, & Turan, 2017;Ergüden, Gurlek, & Turan, 2018) indicate the eastward migration of the species in the Mediterranean waters of Turkey.…”

“…Previously, a specimen of P. sagittarius reported from the Iskenderun Bay by Yapıcı & Hasbek (2018) was misidentified. Later, Ergüden et al (2018) reported that the misidentified species was P. hamrur. Thus, there has been no record of this species from the southeastern coast of thr Mediterranean waters of Turkey.…”