Open AccessThe arrival of a second ‘Lessepsian sprinter’? A first record of the red cornetfish Fistularia petimba in the Eastern Mediterranean
Author(s) -
Nir Stern,
Guy Paz,
Yana Yudkovsky,
Hadas Lubinevsky,
Baruch Rinkevich
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
mediterranean marine science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.734
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1791-6763
pISSN - 1108-393X
DOI - 10.12681/mms.14144
Subject(s) - sympatric speciation , taxon , mediterranean climate , mediterranean sea , identification (biology) , geography , biology , identity (music) , zoology , ecology , art , aesthetics
Here we document the first occurrence of the red cornetfish Fistularia petimba in the Levantine Basin. This species identity has been confirmed using morphological and molecular tools, and is presented here with simplified illustrations for accurate future identification. This report voices a concern regarding another blitz invasion of a cornetfish into the Mediterranean, following its Lessepsian sprinter congeneric, F. commersonii, one of the most efficacious invaders of the Mediterranean Sea. The wide intra-specific genetic distances found between sympatric F. petimba specimens in the available literature resources may also demonstrate the presence of cryptic diversity within this taxon.