New records of amphipod crustaceans along the Israeli Mediterranean coast, including a rare Mediterranean endemic species, Maera schieckei Karaman & Ruffo, 1971

Abstract

Background A survey has been carried out at four Israeli rocky sites to evaluate the diversity of the amphipod fauna on various hard substrates, still scarcely monitored, as potential pabulum for amphipod crustacean species. New information A survey of shallow rocky reefs along the Mediterranean coast of Israel recovered 28 species and integrated the Amphipoda checklist for the country of Israel with 12 newly recorded species. Such renewed national list includes Maera schieckei Karaman & Ruffo, 1971, a rare species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, recorded here for the first time from the southern Levant Basin. The species, described from specimens collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea in 1970, has been only recorded eight times within the whole Mediterranean Sea. A revision of the bibliography on the distribution and ecology of M. schieckei showed that, although mentioned only for the western Mediterranean basin by some authors, it is listed in the checklist of amphipods of the Aegean Sea and neighbouring seas and has been found in the eastern Mediterranean basin since 1978. Maera schieckei was rarely found in the Mediterranean, one of the most studied marine biogeographic region as concerns the amphipod fauna; and the species seems to prefer bays or gulf areas. The role of updating and monitoring faunal composition should be reevaluated.