Melanella orientalis Agamennone, Micali & Siragusa, 2020

Albano, Paolo G., Steger, Jan, Bakker, Piet A. J., Bogi, Cesare, Bosnjak, Marija, Guy-Haim, Tamar, Huseyinoglu, Mehmet Fatih, LaFollette, Patrick I., Lubinevsky, Hadas, Mulas, Martina, Stockinger, Martina, Azzarone, Michele & Sabelli, Bruno, 2021, Numerous new records of tropical non-indigenous species in the Eastern Mediterranean highlight the challenges of their recognition and identification, ZooKeys 1010, pp. 1-95 : 1

Melanella orientalis Agamennone, Micali & Siragusa, 2020 Figure 17

New records.

Israel • 5 spcms; Ashqelon; 31.6868°N, 34.5516°E; depth 12 m; 30 Apr. 2018; offshore rocky reef; suction sampler; HELM project (samples S12_1F, S12_1M, S12_3F); size: H 2.7 mm, W 1.0 (illustrated specimen) • 1 spcm; same collecting data as for preceding; depth 11 m; 31 Oct. 2018; HELM project (sample S58_2F) • 3 spcms; Ashqelon; 31.6891°N, 34.5257°E; depth 25 m; 2 May 2018; offshore rocky reef; suction sampler; HELM project (samples S16_1F, S16_2F) • 1 spcm; same collecting data as for preceding; depth 28 m; 31 Oct. 2018; HELM project (sample S59_1F).

Remarks.

This species can be distinguished from Mediterranean Melanella by its gently curved whorls, straight spire with fewer whorls and thinner shell than most species. It superficially resembles the Red Sea " Eulima " orthophyes Sturany, 1903 (type illustrated by Albano et al. (2017)), which can be distinguished because of its slightly bent apical whorls and the unusual pustulous sculpture of the protoconch. The species presented here is apparently already widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean ( Agamennone et al. 2020a). We found only living individuals and no empty shells. Because of this, and the low likelihood that a so widespread species in shallow depths in the Eastern Mediterranean would have escaped detection for long, we consider it a new non-indigenous species in the basin. The specimens reported as Melanella sp. by Albano et al. (2020) from mesophotic reefs off northern Israel belong to this species.

Figures

Figure 17. Melanella orientalis Agamennone, Micali & Siragusa, 2020, Ashqelon, Israel, HELM project (sample S 12 _ 1 M): front (A, B), side (C, D) and back (E) views, apex (F). Scale bars: 1 mm (A-E); 0.2 mm (F).