BioInvasions Records (2020) Volume 9, Issue 3: 490–495

CORRECTED PROOF

Rapid Communication First record of Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884 (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae) in Libya through social media data mining

Jamila Rizgalla1,* and Fabio Crocetta2 1Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya 2Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, I-80121 Napoli, Italy Author e-mails: [email protected] (JR), [email protected] (FC) *Corresponding author

Citation: Rizgalla J, Crocetta F (2020) First record of Phyllorhiza punctata von Abstract Lendenfeld, 1884 (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae) in Libya through social The white-spotted jellyfish Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884, native to media data mining. BioInvasions Records the Indo-Pacific, is a well-established alien species in the Mediterranean Sea, with 9(3): 490–495, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir. records from several countries in the eastern and the western part of the basin. We 2020.9.3.05 hereby first record this taxon from Libya based on postings made on the Facebook® Received: 23 May 2020 social media website by a recreational spear-fisherman who took images of a Accepted: 5 July 2020 specimen at Misratah, to the west of the country. The finding date reported here is Published: 11 August 2020 almost in sync with records held in the neighbouring Mediterranean countries, solidifying the importance of social media as an effective retrospective tool by Handling editor: Philippe Goulletquer providing information that were otherwise lost. There are no certainties regarding Thematic editor: Andrew David possible pathway(s) of arrival of P. punctata in Libya. However, shipping or natural Copyright: © Rizgalla and Crocetta dispersal from nearby populations in the Mediterranean Sea constitute the most This is an open access article distributed under terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License probable ones. (Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0). Key words: alien species, biological invasions, jellyfishes, southern Mediterranean OPEN ACCESS. Sea, Facebook®, non-native

Introduction The white-spotted jellyfish Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884 (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae) is a jellyfish of the family Mastigiidae Stiasny, 1920 described from Port Jackson (Australia) and native to the tropical south-western Pacific and the Indian Ocean (Graham et al. 2003). It has a nearly semi-spherical umbrella with an average diameter of 45–50 cm, punctuated by white crystalline inclusions appearing like white dots, and eight thick transparent branching moutharms which terminate with large brown bundles of stinging cells (Graham et al. 2003). This species is tolerant to a wide range of salinities and water temperatures, and is typically found in murky waters of harbours and embayments near estuaries and lagoons (Rippingale and Kelly 1995). It reproduces asexually in the polyp stage, and sexually in the medusoid stage. The planktonic larvae (planulae) typically settle to the bottom where it attaches and grows, and may then form additional scyphistomae via a process of budding,

Rizgalla and Crocetta (2020), BioInvasions Records 9(3): 490–495, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2020.9.3.05 490 First record of Phyllorhiza punctata in Libya through social media data mining

and/or develop into a strobila, a benthic form which asexually produces ephyrae which develop into medusae (Hawaii Biological Survey 2001). Such wide environmental requests and the alternation of generations may have facilitated the worldwide transport of P. punctata presumably by shipping through ballast water or fouling. In fact, the species has been already recorded as an alien species from the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, the western Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea (Graham et al. 2003). In the latter area, P. punctata is considered as an established alien species, first recorded in Israel on basis of a single individual collected in 1965 (Galil et al. 1990; Zenetos et al. 2017). Then, following a long temporal gap, the species was sighted in 2005 in Greece (Abed-Navandi and Kikinger 2007) and again in Israel (Galil et al. 2009), in 2009 in Italy (Boero et al. 2009), in 2010 in Turkey (Cevik et al. 2011; Gülşahin and Tarkan 2012), in 2011 in Syria (Durgham 2011), in 2012 in Tunisia (Gueroun et al. 2015; Stamouli et al. 2017), in 2015 in Lebanon (Dailianis et al. 2016), and in 2016 in Malta (Deidun et al. 2017). Within the framework of an ongoing programme investigating alien species occurring in the marine coastal waters of Libya, we here provide the first record of P. punctata from the country based on a posting made on the Facebook® social media website by a recreational spear-fisherman.

Materials and methods Data reported in the present paper fall within the framework of the “Snowball” project, which aims at assessing the marine biodiversity in Libya by integrating information gained from field surveys and social media (citizen science projects and mining Facebook® posts). The recreational fisherman Hakeem Elshegmani posted on his personal Facebook® page an underwater image of him alongside a conspicuous jellyfish, on the 21th September 2015 (Figure 1). During recent Facebook® mining by one of the authors (Jamila Rizgalla) the image was found and thereafter identified as the white-spotted jellyfish P. punctata. The fisherman was then contacted via Facebook® messenger for additional images as well as for information on location, time, depth, and the permission to use images and information for a specific publication illustrating the finding.

Results Hakeem Elshegmani sent via Facebook® messenger images of all the jellyfishes he found while spearfishing. Phyllorhiza punctata, in particular, was found on the 19th January 2015 at Al Dafiniyah (in the district of Misratah) (32°26′37.8″N; 14°53′02.5″E), in the western part of Libya, at 5 m depth and with a seawater temperature of 16–17 °C. Further specimens were observed from January to April of the same year. The contacted fisherman also sent images of the natives Cotylorhiza tuberculata (Macri,

Rizgalla and Crocetta (2020), BioInvasions Records 9(3): 490–495, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2020.9.3.05 491 First record of Phyllorhiza punctata in Libya through social media data mining

Figure 1. The white-spotted jellyfish Phyllorhiza punctata from Misratah (Libya). Original Facebook® post by Hakeem Elshegmani and other photos provided to the authors.

1778) and Rhizostoma pulmo (Macri, 1778), observed in the same area of P. punctata, as well as of Pelagia noctiluca (Forsskål, 1775), forming massive blooms in proximity of the iron factory of Misratah. According the same fishermen, he remembered starting seeing P. punctata in Libya since about 2004, but he had no images of that. This latter statement would suggest that the recent bloom of P. punctata in the Mediterranean Sea would have started in Libya, as this record would predate the Greek one from 2005, but this is not verifiable and thus cannot be confirmed here. Notwithstanding that, the record held at Al Dafiniyah in 2015 is confirmed, and it further extends to Libya the known distribution of this alien species in the Mediterranean Sea.

Discussion The role of citizen science in detecting alien species spreading in the Mediterranean Sea has proved to be of paramount importance (Crocetta et al. 2017; Tiralongo et al. 2020). It also already gave birth to specific research projects on jellyfishes, such as the “Jellywatch Programme” launched 2001 by the Mediterranean Commission (CIESM) (Boero and Briand 2001) and leading to the detection of alien species spreading and massive blooms of native species (Boero et al. 2009, 2016). This is because citizen science works particularly well in case of jellyfishes that often resurface in social

Rizgalla and Crocetta (2020), BioInvasions Records 9(3): 490–495, https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2020.9.3.05 492 First record of Phyllorhiza punctata in Libya through social media data mining

media in part due to their often painful sting and because of their large sizes and conspicuous blooms. This is clearly also what happened here with P. punctata in Misratah. There are no certainties regarding possible pathway(s) of arrival of P. punctata in Libya. However, shipping or natural dispersal from nearby populations in the Mediterranean Sea constitute the most probable ones. Indeed, Misratah holds one of the most important commercial harbours of Libya that has risen in recent years to become a cosmopolitan shipping harbour (J. Rizgalla, unpublished data). Keeping in mind the role that harbours may play for the introduction and spread of alien species in Libya (e.g. Dragičević et al. 2019; Rizgalla et al. 2019a, b, c, d; Rizgalla and Crocetta 2020a, b), it is not to exclude the possibility that shipping may have played a role in this species introduction. On the other hand, natural dispersal from nearby populations in the Mediterranean Sea also cannot be disregarded, especially when keeping in mind the presence of a massive and breading population in the Bizerte lagoon (Gueroun et al. 2015). Citizen scientists are progressively playing a crucial role in the tracing and recording of alien species in Libyan waters (e.g. Rizgalla et al. 2019a; Osca et al. 2020), a tool which is increasingly instrumentalized mostly to compensate lack of funding and virtual impossibility for undertaking extensive survey programs along its coastline due to an ongoing political unrest. In addition, social media data mining solidifies the importance of social media as an effective retrospective tool by providing information that were otherwise lost (Rizgalla et al. 2016). In fact, in setting the sequence of arrival and with it the invasive process of P. punctata in Libya at a much earlier date, and almost in sync with records held in the neighbouring Mediterranean countries, it provided a more accurate account of the invasive process of this species in the Mediterranean Sea.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the recreational fisherman Hakeem Elshegmani (Libya) for having allowed using his pictures and for sharing his information. The study was conducted as part of project Snowball. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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