The Indo-Pacific Sergeant Abudefduf vaigiensis (Quoy &amp; Gaimard, 1825) (Perciformes: Pomacentridae) in Libya, South-Central Mediterranean Sea

Francesco Tiralongo,Jamila Rizgalla,Sara A. A. Almabruk,David Osca,Fabio Crocetta,Valentina Tanduo,Ioannis Giovos

doi:10.3390/jmse8010014

Abstract

The Indo-Pacific Sergeant Abudefduf vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) (Chordata: Pisces: Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Pomacentridae) is first recorded in the south-central Mediterranean Sea (Libya), based on the external morphology and the barcoding of a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Present sightings from field surveys and social media include juveniles, sub-adults, and a single adult specimen, suggesting that the species is now established in Libyan waters. No certainties occur regarding timing and possible pathway of arrival of this species in the area, and it may have simply gone undetected for years. The joint effort of field studies and citizen science projects in collaboration with international organizations continues shedding light on bioinvasions in Libya, with valuable outcomes for the Mediterranean marine biology as a whole.

Highlights

Biological pollution is a common phenomenon worldwide
The majority of the sightings (6) regarded specimens with an oval-shaped body, silvery-white belly in color with a yellow part around the base of the dorsal fin and five vertical conspicuous black bars, four on the trunk and the fifth located on the caudal peduncle, coinciding with morphological characters of A. vaigiensis
Molecular results obtained here are in agreement with data reported by Bertrand et al [27], who noticed that an A. vaigiensis lineage was found to be nested within A. sexfasciatus in the mitochondrial gene tree, whereas both species were only found to be distinct based on nuclear information

Summary

Introduction

Biological pollution is a common phenomenon worldwide. Marine invasions have been widely documented all over the world [1], they are very relevant in the Mediterranean Sea, where native species are often even outnumbered by congeneric or confamilial taxa [2]. The family Pomacentridae Bonaparte, 1831 in the Mediterranean Sea, as an example, includes a single native species, Chromis chromis (Linnaeus, 1758), and seven additional alien or cryptogenic taxa, namely Abudefduf hoefleri (Steindachner, 1881), Abudefduf saxatilis (Linnaeus, 1758), Abudefduf sexfasciatus (Lacepède, 1801), Abudefduf vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825), Chrysiptera cyanea (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825), Chrysiptera hemicyanea (Weber, 1913), and Stegastes variabilis (Castelnau, 1855) (Table 1, Figure 1). Chrysiptera cyanea (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) Origin EA AO IP IP IWP

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