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Despite the hydroid fauna of the Mediterranean Sea being considered one of the best known in the world, the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea remains nearly unexplored. This paper reports on 38 species collected along the Levant Sea coast (mainly Lebanon), of which three are new records for the Mediterranean and nine for the Levant Sea. Six alien species, i.e. Eudendrium carneum, Sertularia marginata, Sertularia techocarpa, Macrorhynchia philippina, Diphasia digitalis and Dynamena quadridentata, are described in detail and illustrated on the basis of Levant Sea material. The last four species are considered as immigrants from the Red Sea. The synonymy of Sertularia stechowi, described from Japan, with S. techocarpa is established. Taken as a whole, the collection comprised a majority of circum-(sub)tropical species, and a reduced proportion of Atlantic–Mediterranean elements and Mediterranean endemics. The ecology (seasonality, depth distribution and habitat preference) of the indigenous species resulted similar to what is known for the more studied western Mediterranean, with some exceptions. Adding the present species inventory to the scanty published information, the total of hydroid species known from the Levant Sea rises to 70, indicating the need for future investigation in this sector of the Mediterranean Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Five new species of sponges are described from the coast of Lebanon in the eastern Mediterranean, Levantine Basin. Euryspongia raouchensis (Dysideidae), Liosina blastifera (Dictyonellidae) and Niphates toxifera (Niphatidae) belong to genera that are new for the Mediterranean but widely distributed in the tropics. Cinachyrella levantinensis (Tetillidae) and Ciocalypta carballoi (Halichondriidae) are described in genera with a restricted distribution in the Mediterranean, which have affinities with species from the Atlantic West African coast. These species do not appear to be lessepsian migrants, but are interpreted as remnants of an ancient thermophilous fauna that survived in the easternmost part of the Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The geographic distribution of Verruca stroemia and V. spengleri are reviewed. Verruca stroemia ranges from the White, Barents, Norwegian, and North Seas south to Portugal to the Algarve and to Gorringe Bank. All of the records of this species from the Mediterranean Sea are considered to be V. spengleri. Verruca spengleri occurs in the Azores and Madeira archipelagos, in southern Spain (Cádiz), throughout the Mediterranean Sea from Gibraltar to Lebanon, and in the Black Sea. But a distinct deep-water Verruca species seems to occur in the deep Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]