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Lundberg et al., 1999; Azzurro et al., 2004). This site
also had the greatest populations of herbivore species S.
salpa, Chromis chromis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Sparus au-
rata (Linnaeus, 1758), suggesting that herbivorous fish
species are able to thrive at this site, without the compet-
ing Siganus spp. overgrazing the benthic algae.

Earlier records in the area are from the island of Fourni,
where fishermen’s fish catch was recorded in August and
September 2012 (Pennington et al., 2013). Regarding the
results of this study, Siganus spp. have to be considered as
a totally established species in the region.

2.9. First record of Stephanolepis diaspros (Tetrao- Fig. 18: Map showing the locality off P�u�n�ta��M��u�g�n�o�n�e��(�M�a�r�e�t�-
dontiformes, Monacanthidae) from the Egadi timo Island, Italy) where Stephanolepis diaspros was recorded.
Islands Marine Protected Area (western Sicily)

By P. Balistreri and M. Parasporo

Stephanolepis diaspros (Fraser–Brunner, 1940) is a Fig. 19: Specimen of Stephanolepis diaspros caught off Maret-
representative of the Monacanthidae family (file fishes) timo Island (Italy) (photo by Vito Vaccaro).
widely distributed in the shelf waters of the Persian Gulf
and Red Sea. Reticulated leatherjacket S. diaspros is scarce information about its biology and ecology do not
one of the earlier Lessepsian immigrants actually well allow us to draw definite conclusions on its settlement in
established in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea the geographical region under study. Nowadays, thanks
(Golani et al., 2015). The species inhabits various sub- to the most recent reports, we can state that probably this
strates and is usually encountered on rocky bottoms with file fish has been expanding towards the western part of
vegetation, sandy and muddy bottoms as well as sea- the Mediterranean basin, as already recorded for other
grass meadows (Golani et al., 2015). In fact, according species such as: Siganus luridus (Rüppel, 1828), Fistu-
to Zouari-Ktari et al. (2008), it is an omnivorous species laria commersonii (Rüppel, 1835), and Lagocephalus
and could be considered an opportunistic predator. sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789). This expansion could suggest
that new specimens of S. diaspros will soon be sighted
In the central part of the basin, the distribution of the in the Egadi Islands and along the western and southern
species extends to the Tunisian coasts and Malta, while in coast of Sicily.
Italy it has been reported from the Gulf of Taranto, in the
waters off Lampedusa Island up to the Gulf of Palermo 2.10.Northward expansion of the alien pufferfish
(Deidun et al., 2015; Golani et al., 2015). It has also been Torquigener flavimaculosus along the southeast-
recorded in the North Adriatic Sea (Lipej et al., 2014), ern Aegean coasts of Turkey
actually representing the northernmost record of S. di-
aspros diaspros. By S. Yapici and A. Tűrker

On 20th July 2014, a specimen of Stephanolepis di- The pufferfish Torquigener flavimaculosus Hardy
aspros was caught using a trammel net in the waters & Randall, 1983, is an Erythrean fish; it entered into the
off Punta Mugnone (Marettimo, Italy, 37.99028°N, Mediterranean from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal, and was
12.02397°E; Fig. 18) on a rocky bottom at about 20 m reported for the first time by Golani (1987) from Haifa, Israel.
depth. The identification of the specimen (Fig. 19), about The first record of T. flavimaculosus in the Turkish Aegean
17 cm long, was based exclusively on the available pho- Sea was given from Fethiye Bay (Bilecenoğlu, 2005), while
tos using a dichotomous key on the basis of the follow- its expansion was confirmed in 2008 at Iskenderun Bay
ing characteristics: spiniform ray on the first dorsal fol-
lowed by a reduced membrane; rounded caudal with two
dark transversal bands; gray/brown or greenish colour
with darker patches or with clear lines that sometimes
draw oblong rhombus shapes. According to El-Ganainy
(2010), since females are smaller-sized (8.0-16.0 cm
long) than male specimens (up to 16.0-26.0 cm long), we
considered that the file fish sample must be an adult male.

This is an additional report of S. diaspros from Italian
waters and from the Strait of Sicily. Even though S. dias-
pros has a wide distribution in the Mediterranean Sea, the

Medit. Mar. Sci., 16/2, 2015, 472-488 483