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expansions is that of the European green crab, which spread along the western coast
of the United States at rates of 200 km per year. Also, the crab Hemigrapsus
sanguineus experienced rapid range expansion on the eastern coast of the United
States. In Europe, Eriocheir sinensis also spread rapidly along the coast and
throughout many river systems during the early twentieth century (Grosholz, 2011).
Rapid spread is by no means the rule or even the norm for the same species. For
instance, Carcinus maenas has spread very little in southern Australia and Tasmania,
and the rates of spread in eastern North America were very minimal for long periods.

Review on the geographical distribution, abundance and biological data of
ecologically important alien crabs found in the Mediterranean basin
A number of 40 alien Brachyura species of Red Sea/Indo-Pacific origin, belonging to
19 families, have been recorded so far in the Mediterranean Sea (Galil, 2011;
Zenetos et al., 2012; Corsini-Foka et al., 2013; Karhan et al., 2013; Galil and
Mendelson, 2013; Zaouali et al., 2013). The families Portunidae, Pilumnidae and
Leucosiidae show the highest number of Red Sea/ Indo-Pacific aliens, with 11, 5 and
3 species respectively, while the remaining families are represented by only one or
two species.
Up to date, most Indo-Pacific decapod species introduced to the Aegean
waters (21 species) are concentrated along the coasts of the south-eastern corner of
the basin, a marine environment particularly suitable for the establishment of warm-
water alien species (Pancucci-Papadopoulou et al., 2012). In particular, all Indo-
Pacific alien Brachyura reported from the waters around Rhodes have been
introduced via the Suez Canal (12 species) (Corsini-Foka and Pancucci-Papadopoulou,
2012; Corsini-Foka et al., 2013).
The most known invader crabs in the Mediterranean are Portunus pelagicus
and Percnon gibbesi which are the most recent and successful invaders in the
Mediterranean Sea and the blue crab Callinectes sapidus.

Portunus pelagicus
The blue crab Portunus pelagicus, also known as the flower crab, blue swimmer crab,
blue manna crab or sand crab (Fig. 9) is abundant in the Indic and West Pacific
Oceans: From Japan, and Philippines troughout Southeast and East Asia, to
Indonesia, the East of Australia, and Fidji Islands, and westward to the Red Sea and
East Africa. The geographical distribution of the blue swimmer crab P. pelagicus
comprises the Red Sea and the Indo-West Pacific Ocean. It was first recorded in the
Mediterranean Sea at Port Said, Egypt, in 1898 (Galil and Zenetos, 2002) and, later,
at Palestine (Fox, 1924), Mediterranean coasts of Turkey, Lebanon, Syria (Holthuis
and Gottlieb, 1958; Kocatas, 1981), Cyprus (Demetropoulos and Neocleous, 1969)
and Italy, eastern Sicily (Crocetta, 2006; Ariani and Serra, 1969; Zibrowius, 1991; Galil
et al., 2002). Recently it has been collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea and in the Aegean
Sea, Turkey (Yokes et al., 2007; Corsini-Foca et al., 2004) (Fig. 10). Global warming is
expected to favour this tropical species (Galil, 2007). Found primarily within
estuaries and inshore coastal waters on sandy or muddy substrate, intertidal to 55 m
praying on slow-moving invertebrates and scavenging (Lai et al., 2010). Commercially
valuable since the early 1920s in the Levant basin CIESM, 2014).