Page 20 - Collective Article_2017

8. CYPRUS

8.1 Bursatella leachii in Cyprus

F. Crocetta & M. Pontes

Bursatella leachii Blainville, 1817 (Mollusca: Gas- So far, the species was unknown from Cyprus, and the
tropoda: Aplysiidae) is a conspicuous shallow-water cir- present accidental finding fills a gap in its known Medi-
cumtropical opisthobranch, that since the last century has terranean invaded range, although we consider this spe-
colonized the entire Mediterranean Sea, with multiple cies as casual in the country. Further field research may
records from the eastern to the western Mediterranean, confirm this statement or reject it by providing concrete
including the Adriatic Sea (see Ibáñez-Yuste et al., 2012; evidences of its establishment. On the other hand, the first
Zenetos et al., 2016). Despite the fact that the species is finding of an apparently easy to spot taxon in 2016 only,
commonly considered as a Lessepsian invader, records clearly confirms that some areas of the Mediterranean still
from the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea are remain largely unexplored, and that further field work is
scarce, and consist of some old records from Egypt and necessary to increase general benthic knowledge on Le-
Israel (review in Barash & Danin, 1992) and mostly re- vantine biota.
cent ones from Turkey (review in Özvarol, 2014) and
Lebanon (review in Crocetta et al., 2013).
On August 16 2016, two specimens of B. leach-
th
ii were found at Kyrenia, Cyprus (35.347526° N,
33.235070° E), while crawling on an unvegetated muddy
bottom (Fig. 26). A video of the individuals can be visu-
alized at the following webpage: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=qUIQnwlEt6U. This taxon is well-known
for thriving in various habitats and localities around the
Mediterranean, where it is considered as temporary inva-
sive during some periods of the year, although it subse-
quently disappears. Unfortunately, the author did not give
particular importance to the finding, and did not carry out
additional observations. Therefore, the presence of further
specimens cannot be excluded at the present stage. Fig. 26: Bursatella leachii from Cyprus.

Acknowledgements N. Fotiadis, members of the MEDITS scientific team, for
their valuable help during samplings and also the captain
The study coauthored by Valentina Pitacco, Lovrenc and the crew of the fishing boat “ΤΑΚIS-ΜΙΜIS”. Fern-
Lipej and Fabio Crocetta is part of Valentina’s PhD study ando Ángel Fernández-Álvarez was supported by a pre-
funded by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), and doctoral fellowship of the Spanish Ministry of Economy
was supported by the Ministry of the Environment and and Competiveness (BES-2013-063551). His co-authors,
Spatial Planning of Slovenia. The study of alien species Iván Acevedo and Paula C. Rodríguez-Flores, were fund-
from Slovenia involving Fabio Crocetta was partially ed under the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Compe-
funded by the East and South European Network for Inva- tiveness project CTM2014-57949-R. Ch. Mytilineou and
sive Alien Species - a tool to support the management of al- A. Anastasopoulou would like to thank the onboard team
ien species in Bulgaria (ESENIAS-TOOLS) (EEA funded of the EPILEXIS project (C.J. Smith, E. Lefkaditou, K.
- Contract No. Д-33-51/30.06.2015). Fabio Crocetta and Papadopoulou, C. Stamouli, J. Dokos, G. Oikonomidis,
Miquel Pontes are grateful to Alper Karabacak (Kyrenia, E. Kypraiou); C.J. Smith, in particular, for the pho-
Cyprus) for sharing data on Bursatella leachii. Authors tographic material, as well as the captain and the crew
Gianni Insacco and Bruno Zava are grateful to the pro- of F/V ‘Takis-Mimis’ for supporting the survival of the
fessional fisherman Mr Alessandro Bonfissuti, owner of Bluntnose Sixgill Shark specimen. The study of D. Yag-
“Erika”, for providing the C. sapidus specimen studied. lioglu and C. Turan was financially supported by Duzce
The authors warmly thank Maria Corsini-Foka (Hellenic University Research Fund, Project Number: 2013.5.1.189
Centre for Marine Research) for useful comments, which and coordinated by DY. For Malta, Alan Deidun and Mu-
improved a previous draft of their note. Authors Aikaterini rat Celik are grateful to the Maltese angler -David Agius-
Dogrammatzi and Caterina Stamouli would like to thank who caught the L. sceleratus specimen reported in this
Dr E. Leukaditou, J. Dokos, G. Christidis, I. Fytilakos and study.

198 Medit. Mar. Sci., 18/1, 2017, 179-201