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Epitonium (Parviscala) vaillanti (Jousseaume, 1912), a species previously known only from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, is recorded for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea. This new Erythrean alien was found in the course of examination of unidentified specimens from Mediterranean coast of Israel, showed morphological features unknown to any previously recorded Mediterranean epitonid species. To confirm identification, morphological comparison with the syntypic serie of Avalitiscala vaillanti Jousseaume, 1912, stored in the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris (MNHN) was performed and some remarks of the taxonomy of the species are discussed.

New data on 52 non-indigenous mollusks in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea is reported. Fossarus sp. (aff. aptus sensu Blatterer 2019), Coriophora lessepsiana Albano, Bakker & Sabelli, sp. nov., Cerithiopsis sp. aff. pulvis, Joculator problematicus Albano & Steger, sp. nov., Cerithiopsis sp., Elachisina sp., Iravadia aff. elongata, Vitrinella aff. Vitrinella sp. 1 (sensu Blatterer 2019), Melanella orientalis, Parvioris aff. dilecta, Odostomia cf. dalli, Oscilla virginiae, Parthenina cossmanni, Parthenina typica, Pyrgulina craticulata, Turbonilla funiculata, Cylichna collyra, Musculus coenobitus, Musculus aff. viridulus, Chavania erythraea, Scintilla cf. violescens, Iacra seychellarum and Corbula erythraeensis are new records for the Mediterranean. An unidentified gastropod, Skeneidae indet., Triphora sp., Hypermastus sp., Sticteulima sp., Vitreolina cf. philippi, Odostomia (s.l.) sp. 1, Henrya (?) sp., and Semelidae sp. are further potential new non-indigenous species although their status should be confirmed upon final taxonomic assessment. Additionally, the status of Dikoleps micalii, Hemiliostraca clandestina comb. nov. and H. athenamariae comb. nov. is changed to non-indigenous, range extensions for nine species and the occurrence of living individuals for species previously recorded from empty shells only are reported. Opimaphora blattereri Albano, Bakker & Sabelli, sp. nov. is described from the Red Sea for comparison with the morphologically similar C. lessepsiana Albano, Bakker & Sabelli, sp. nov. The taxonomic part is followed by a discussion on how intensive fieldwork and cooperation among institutions and individuals enabled such a massive report, and how the poor taxonomic knowledge of the Indo-Pacific fauna hampers non-indigenous species detection and identification. Finally, the hypothesis that the simultaneous analysis of quantitative benthic death assemblages can support the assignment of non-indigenous status to taxonomically undetermined species is discussed.

This is the second collective paper issued in 2019, currently amalgamates new knowledge on the Mediterranean geographic distributions of 17 species from five phyla (six aliens, three cosmopolitans, two east Atlantic records and six natives). The acknowledged species were reported from ten countries, mentioned here from west to east: Spain: first report of the east Atlantic grouper Cephalopholis taeniops in the western Mediterranean and an inclusion of Pontarachna puntulum and Litarachna communis to the pontarachnid fauna of Spain; Morocco: first record of Solea senegalensis from the Moroccan Mediterranean coast; Algeria: a valid confirmation for the presence of Sardinella maderensis; Malta: a first record of the Red Sea stomatopod Erugosquilla massavensis; Italy: a rare observation of the crab Paragalene longicrura from Siciliy and a further integration of the alien brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus to the commercial catch in Sicily; Montenegro: a first record of the Lessepsian bigfin reef squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana from the Adriatic Sea; Turkey: northernmost documentation of the Mediterranean flatworm Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii in the Aegean Sea; Israel: a solid confirmation for the population establishment of both the alien rock shrimp Sicyonia lancifer and two species of angelfish, and a first and deepest record of the crystalline goby Odondebuenia balearica; Lebanon: first record of the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca; Syria: first records of the crown jellyfish Nausithoe punctate and the smallscale codlet Bregmaceros nectabanus.

Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Figs 3, 4, 5, 6) Synonym section: Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948: 12, fig. 3.—Myers, 1970: 141, fig. 1–2.—Myers, 1972: 790; 1981: 218.— Ledoyer, 1973: 40.—Griffiths, 1974 b: 282.—Asari & Myers, 1982: 252, figs 9–10.—Lowry & Stoddart, 2003: 70 (catalogue). Grandidierella megnae. —Chilton, 1921: 548, fig. 10.—Stephensen, 1933: 434.—Shoemaker, 1935: 70. Unciolella lunata.—Schellenberg, 1928: 669, fig. 207. Grandidierella bonnieri.—K.H. Barnard, 1935: 299.—Panikkar & Aiyar, 1937: 294.—Schellenberg, 1938: 215.—Shoemaker, 1948: 11, fig. 3.—K.H. Barnard, 1951: 708; 1952: 279, fig. 1.—Ruffo, 1958: 58, figs 8, 9.—Nayar, 1959: 38, pl. 14, figs 1–5; 1966: 161, fig. 17 f. —Ledoyer, 1967: 137, fig. 28 a; 1968: 287, fig. 25 b.—Griffiths, 1973: 283; 1974 a: 228. Material examined. Israel. Haifa Bay 32 ° 55 ’ 07’’ N, 35 ° 04’ 33 ’’ E, depth 7.85 m, 7 August 2014, 8 males, 48 females, 171 immature (1 male, 6 females, 27 immature; 3 males, 29 females, 99 immature; 4 males, 13 females, 45 immature, respectively in the three replicates). 1 male, 2 females, 10 immature (SMNH TAU AR- 29389), the balance retained in the Zoological Museum of the University of Palermo (MZPA-AMPH-0008). (The bold-italic parts are diagnostic descriptions). Diagnosis: Male, 3.3 mm (MZPA-AMPH-0008m). Head lateral cephalic lobes apically truncate. Antenna 1 flagellum with about 19 articles; accessory flagellum with one long and one distal rudimentary article. Antenna 2 with few long setae. Lower lip with fine setae only. Maxilla 1 inner plate without setae. Mandible, palp article 3 subequal to 2, posterior margin substraight, setae distal. Pereonites 1–3 with apically acute sternal spines. Gnathopod 1 enlarged in males only; coxa unproduced anterodistally. Gnathopod 1 coxa ventral margin without small spine, basis robust, half or more as broad as long, without a spine, anterior margin without stridulating ridges, posterodistal margin with setae sparse, anterodistal margin with flange weak; ischium anterior margin without flange, posterior margin with setae sparse; merus not greatly elongated, fused along its entire length with carpus, posterior margin with sparse setae, without posterodistal spine; carpus twice length of propodus, anterior margin without stridulating ridges, with setae sparse, anterior margin with no spine, a row of setae on inner face, posterior margin with submarginal spine (lacking in smaller males), strong posterodistal spine, and smaller obtuse distal spine ; propodus, anterior margin weakly setiferous, posterior margin straight or evenly convex, palm absent; dactylus more than half length of propodus. Gnathopod 2 subchelate; basis anterodistal margin without flange, posterodistal margin without robust setae, with few setae along length of basis; merus not enlarged or produced away from carpus; carpus longer than propodus, anterior margin not lobate, with a few spaced setae; propodus with few setae, palm with pair of robust setae defining palm. Pereopod 3 – 7 absent in all the Mediterranean collected specimens. Uropod 1 rami subequal, peduncle much longer than broad, distoventral spine one fifth length of peduncle. Uropod 2 biramous; peduncle without distoventral spine. Uropod 3 uniramous, ramus at least twice length of peduncle. Telson with distal fine setae only. Female, 3.25 mm (MZPA-AMPH-0008f) (sexually dimorphic characters). Sternal spines absent. Gnathopod 1 basis slender, much less than half as broad as long; carpus a little longer than propodus; propodus palm present, evenly continuous with posterior margin, posterior margin with three robust setae; dactylus significantly overlapping palm. Remarks. Among all the Aoridae known from Mediterranean Sea (Myers 1982; Christodoulou 2013) and Red Sea (Ruffo 1959; Sorbe et al. 2002), only Grandidierella genus has together uropod 3 uniramous and gnathopod 1 carpochelate in male. The only Grandidierella species, recorded in area adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, are G. japonica from Atlantic coast of France (Jourde et al. 2013) and G. bonnieroides from the Red Sea side of Suez Canal (Schellenberg 1928). These two species can be delimited by the presence/absence of the transverse ridges on the anterior margin of carpus of the gnathopods 1 in male, present in G. japonica and absent in G. bonnieroides. Further, the presence of a submarginal spine on the posterior margin of the carpus of the male gnathopod 1 is a character that distinguishes G. bonnieroides from the other closely related species (Ledoyer 1967; Myers 2009)., Published as part of Brutto, Sabrina Lo, Iaciofano, Davide, Lubinevsky, Hadas & Galil, Bella S., 2016, Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae) — first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea, pp. 518-528 in Zootaxa 4092 (4) on pages 521-525, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/261888

Family AORIDAE Stebbing, 1899, Published as part of Brutto, Sabrina Lo, Iaciofano, Davide, Lubinevsky, Hadas & Galil, Bella S., 2016, Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae) ��� first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea, pp. 518-528 in Zootaxa 4092 (4) on page 521, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/261888

Genus Grandidierella Couti��re, 1904, Published as part of Brutto, Sabrina Lo, Iaciofano, Davide, Lubinevsky, Hadas & Galil, Bella S., 2016, Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae) ��� first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea, pp. 518-528 in Zootaxa 4092 (4) on page 521, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4092.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/261888

Brutto, Sabrina Lo, Iaciofano, Davide, Lubinevsky, Hadas, Galil, Bella S. (2016): Grandidierella bonnieroides Stephensen, 1948 (Amphipoda, Aoridae) — first record of an established population in the Mediterranean Sea. Zootaxa 4092 (4): 518-528, DOI: http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4092.4.3

The present study is aimed at implementing the amplicon sequence variant (ASV) concept to describe meiofaunal species composition independent of morphological identification, while strongly indicating reasonable compatibility with the underlying species. A primer pair was constructed and demonstrated to PCR amplify an 18S barcode from a variety of meiofaunal taxa, compatible with the high throughput sequencing (HTS) Illumina 300 X 2 bps platform. Sixteen 18S multi-species HTS assemblies were created from meiofaunal samples and merged to one assembly of ~2,150,000 contigs. Five quality scores (q=35, 30, 25, 20, 15) were implemented to filter five 18S barcode assemblies, which served as inputs to the DADA2 software, ending with 5 reference ASV libraries. Each of them was clustered, applying 3% dissimilarity threshold and revealed an average number of 1.38±0.078 ASVs/cluster which demonstrate high level of ASV uniqueness. The libraries which were based on q ≤ 25 reached a near-asymptote number of ASVs which together with the low average number of ASVs/3% cluster, strongly indicate compatibility with the actual number of underlying species. Hence, the q=25 library was selected to be used as metabarcoding reference library. It contained 461 ASVs and 342 - 3% clusters with average number of 1.34±1.036 ASV/cluster and their BLASTN annotation elucidated the expected meiofaunal taxa. The 16 assemblies of sample-specific paired contigs were mapped to this reference library and sample ASV profiles, namely the list of ASVs and their proportional copy numbers were created and also normalized to the actual number of individuals in each sample.