New Records of Rare Species of Marine Invertebrates in the Eastern Mediterranean, Syria

Abstract

Conducting further research and exerting more effort into field studies will aid the detection and recording of new, rare species of invertebrates in the Mediterranean and allow the examination of their biological and environmental characteristics. This article provides information on four species of sea crab (one of which is alien), two species of sea star, one species of sea urchin and two species of octopus, which have all been documented for the first time in Syrian waters. Samples were collected by fishing nets from a coastal area at medium depths (20–630 meters) from Ras al-Basit, Lattakia and Banias during 2020 and 2021. These species are: Actaea savignii (H. Milne Edwards, 1834); Dromia personata (Linnaeus, 1758);Geryon longipes (A. Milne-Edwards, 1882); Homola barbata (Fabricius, 1793); Peltaster placenta (Müller and Troschel, 1842); Chaetaster longipes (Bruzelius, 1805); Sphaerechinus granularis (Lamarck, 1816); Tremoctopus violaceus (Delle Chiaje, 1830);Ocythoe tuberculate (Rafinesque, 1814). Documenting the presence of these rare species is very important from an environmental and scientific perspective, and recording more of them requires coordination with the marine fishing sector in Syria. KEYWORDS Cephalopods, crustaceans, echinoderms, marine biodiversity, non-indigenous species,zoobenthos