Abstract
The blue tang Acanthurus coeruleus Bloch and Schneider, 1801 and the Red Sea bannerfish Heniochus intermedius Steindachner, 1893 are reported for the first time from the Maltese Islands, which also represents the first central Mediterranean record for both species. The new records are based on an individual of A. coeruleus observed in October 2013 and a specimen of H. intermedius caught in November 2014; no individuals of either species have been found since. The occurrence of these species in Malta may be due to a westwards range expansion in the Mediterranean, given that both species were previously recorded from the Levantine Sea, but they could also have been introduced directly in Maltese waters through the aquarium trade or by shipping, particularly since evidence for established populations in the eastern Mediterranean is lacking. The relevance of these new additions of thermophilic fishes to the central Mediterranean ichthyofauna is discussed in relation to ongoing biotic changes in this sea.
Highlights
An ongoing warming trend is clearly evident in both the surface and deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea (Lejeusne et al 2010; Bianchi et al 2012), and temperatures are expected to continue rising given that climate models predict that the Mediterranean region will be one of the hotspots of global climate change (Giorgi 2006; Diffenbaugh and Giorgi 2012)
The initial record of H. intermedius, based on a pair of individuals sighted in the Gulf of Antalya in Turkey in 2002, was originally attributed to shipping or aquarium release (Gökoglu et al 2003), but individuals of this species were subsequently observed in Lebanon in 2005 and again in 2011
While no information on that of H. intermedius is available, the mean pelagic larval duration of three congeneric species ranges between 32 and 41 days (Luiz et al 2013). This provides ample time for these species to disperse to the central Mediterranean from elsewhere in the sea, so the new records of A. coeruleus and H. intermedius from the Maltese Islands may represent a westwards expansion from any populations already established in the eastern Mediterranean
Summary
An ongoing warming trend is clearly evident in both the surface and deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea (Lejeusne et al 2010; Bianchi et al 2012), and temperatures are expected to continue rising given that climate models predict that the Mediterranean region will be one of the hotspots of global climate change (Giorgi 2006; Diffenbaugh and Giorgi 2012). We report the presence of two of these species, the blue tang Acanthurus coeruleus and the Red Sea bannerfish Heniochus intermedius, in the Maltese Islands, which represents the first central Mediterranean record for both.
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