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A single specimen of a pelagiid jellyfish collected next to Ashdod port, Israel, is referred to the genus Chrysaora Péron and Lesueur, 1810 based on molecular examinations. Despite the inability to check morphological features of diagnostic value, molecular analyses based on the mitochondrial barcoding gene cytochrome oxidase sub unit I (COI), 16S and 28S ribosomal DNA reveal marked dissimilarities from both the Northeast Atlantic-Mediterranean native Chrysaora hysoscella (Linnaeus, 1767) and the closest GeneBank/BoLD available congener, the West African C. africana (Vanhöffen, 1902). It is suggested that the species is new to science and non-native to the Mediterranean Sea, possibly the sixth introduced scyphozoan species reported in the Levant Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brassy Chub,Kyphosus vaigiensis, first recorded in the Mediterranean in 1998, is reported herein from the coast of Israel. The identity of the specimen was confirmed by morphological and molecular analysis. This is the first record ofK. vaigiensisfrom the Eastern Mediterranean. The possible origins of the Israeli record is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]