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The mollusc fauna of the Mediterranean Sea is still considered as the best-known marine mollusc fauna in the world. The previous modern checklists of marine Mollusca were produced by joint teams of amateurs and professionals. During the last years the Italian Society of Malacology (Società Italiana di Malacologia – S.I.M.) maintained an updated version of the Mediterranean checklist, that served as the backbone for the development of the new Italian checklist. According to the current version (updated on April 1st, 2021), 1,777 recognised species of marine molluscs are present in the Italian Economic Exclusive Zone, including also the Tyrrhenian coasts of Corsica and the continental shelf of the Maltese archipelago. The new checklist shows an increase of 17% of the species reported in the 1995 Checklist. This is largely (yet not solely) due to the new wave of studies based on Integrative Taxonomy approaches. A total of 135 species (7.6%) are strictly endemic to the Italian waters; 44 species (2.5%) are alien and correspond to the 28% of the Mediterranean alien marine molluscs. All eight extant molluscan classes are represented. The families represented in the Italian fauna are 307, an increase of 14.6% from the first checklist, partly due to new records and partly to new phylogenetic systematics. Compared with the whole Mediterranean malacofauna, the Italian component represents 71% in species and 61% in families, which makes it a very remarkable part of the Mediterranean fauna.

WOS: 000413562500003, PubMed ID: 29085752, The Mediterranean Sea is home to over 2/3 of the world's charter boat traffic and hosts an estimated 1.5 million recreational boats. Studies elsewhere have demonstrated marinas as important hubs for the stepping-stone transfer of non-indigenous species (NIS), but these unique anthropogenic, and typically artificial habitats have largely gone overlooked in the Mediterranean as sources of NIS hot-spots. From April 2015 to November 2016, 34 marinas were sampled across the following Mediterranean countries: Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus to investigate the NIS presence and richness in the specialized hard substrate material of these marina habitats. All macroinvertebrate taxa were collected and identified. Additionally, fouling samples were collected from approximately 600 boat-hulls from 25 of these marinas to determine if boats host diverse NIS not present in the marina. Here, we present data revealing that Mediterranean marinas indeed act as major hubs for the transfer of marine NIS, and we also provide evidence that recreational boats act as effective vectors of spread. From this wide-ranging geographical study, we report here numerous new NIS records at the basin, subregional, country and locality level. At the basin level, we report three NIS new to the Mediterranean Sea (Achelia sawayai sensu lato, Aorides longimerus, Cymodoce aff. fuscina), and the re-appearance of two NIS previously known but currently considered extinct in the Mediterranean (Bemlos leptocheirus, Saccostrea glomerata). We also compellingly update the distributions of many NIS in the Mediterranean Sea showing some recent spreading; we provide details for 11 new subregional records for NIS (Watersipora arcuata, Hydroides brachyacantha sensu lato and Saccostrea glomerata now present in the Western Mediterranean; Symplegma brakenhielmi, Stenothoe georgiana, Spirobranchus tertaceros sensu lato, Dendostrea folium sensu lato and Parasmittina egyptiaca now present in the Central Mediterranean, and W. arcuata, Bemlos leptocheirus and Dyspanopeus sayi in the Eastern Mediterranean). We also report 51 new NIS country records from recreational marinas: 12 for Malta, 10 for Cyprus, nine for Greece, six for Spain and France, five for Turkey and three for Italy, representing 32 species. Finally, we report 20 new NIS records (representing 17 species) found on recreational boat-hulls (mobile habitats), not yet found in the same marina, or in most cases, even the country. For each new NIS record, their native origin and global and Mediterranean distributions are provided, along with details of the new record. Additionally, taxonomic characters used for identification and photos of the specimens are also provided. These new NIS records should now be added to the relevant NIS databases compiled by several entities. Records of uncertain identity are also discussed, to assess the probability of valid non-indigenous status., MARES-Erasmus Mundus; COST ActionEuropean Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) [1209], This work was funded by a PhD Scholarship awarded to Aylin Ulman from the MARES-Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Fellowship Program in Marine Ecosystem Health and Conservation. A COST Action #1209 grant was provided to Aylin Ulman to facilitate ascidian taxonomic identification in the University of Alicante, Spain. MARES is a Joint Doctorate programme selected under Erasmus Mundus coordinated by Ghent University (FPA 2011-0016). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Globally, the spread of non-indigenous species in marine ecosystems is a major ecological and socio-economical concern. The need for long-term assessment on a large scale is a pre-requisite for understanding the drivers associated with their establishment and expansion. Here, the patterns of invasions of subtidal soft-bottom assemblages of shelled molluscs have been quantified based on a unique dataset collected between 2005 and 2012 along the coast of Israel (SE Mediterranean Sea), a hotspot of bioinvasion. Overall, the number of non-indigenous species doubled between 2005 and 2012. Significant differences in terms of species richness and relative abundance were observed in space and time in both native and non-indigenous species. A combination of enduring disturbance regimes related to human activities and site-specific environmental conditions seem to have a critical role in promoting the observed patterns. Our results emphasize the value of long term broad-scale systematic surveys to the development of effective environmental policies for the control of bioinvasions.

A tiny cylindrical shelled species of Granulina is described as new from the bathyal of Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, on the basis of shell morphology. G. zanclea sp. nov. is compared with similar species known from the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic. The high level of specific diversity of the Granulina in Mediterranean is underlined

The alien Erythraean gastropod Finella pupoides has been recorded at low abundance in the Eastern Mediterranean for over half a century. Recently, its populations along the southeastern Levantine coastline have grown extremely abundant. Samples collected by Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research surveys during 2010–2011 off the coast of Israel contained up to 3300 ind/m².

A live juvenile specimen of the mangeliid gastropod Pseudorhaphitoma cf. iodolabiata was noted off the Mediterranean coast of Israel on April 25, 2010, outside the port of Haifa. The occurrence of this Red Sea endemic raises the number of alien mollusk species recorded off the Israeli coast to 137.

Theora lubrica is reported for the first time from Haifa Bay, Israel, in 2006. This Asian semelid bivalve is one of the most invasive ship-transported mollusc species to enter the Mediterranean Sea. It was first recorded in 2001 in Livorno Harbour, Italy, and has since established there a viable population. Its occurrence in ports or port-proximate environments lends credence to shipping serving as its vector.

Twenty-eight mollusc species were collected by Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research during a 2011 pollution monitoring survey of a deep waste-dumping site (1264–1325 m), in the Levantine Sea, 45 km off the coast of Israel. Three species, Odostomia silesui, Ledella marisnostri, and Katadesmia cuneata are new records to the Eastern Mediterranean. The depth records of the first two species considerably extend their known bathymetric ranges. Roxania monterosatoi and Alvania subsoluta are new records for the Levantine Basin and the additional two species are new records for the Israeli coast. The finding of additional specimens of Diaphana marshalli, recently reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, confirms the presence of an established population of the rare species. The exploration and production of the extensive sub-salt natural gas fields recently discovered off the coast of Israel may all too soon impact this barely explored region.

The black striped mussel Mytilopsis sallei, originally described from Guatemala, is reported for the first time from the Mediterranean Sea. In the late 20th Century the species was transported to south-east Asia, where it has caused economic and ecological damage. Its recent discovery in Haifa Harbour, Israel, suggests that the vessel-transported species has been established in the Mediterranean as well.

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.