NOTES ANDNEWS
NEWLOCALITIESFOR AUTOMATEBRANCHIALIS HOLTHUIS&GOTTLIEB,1958 (DECAPODA, ALPHEIDAE) INTHEMEDITERRANEANSEA
BY
TUNCER KATAGANÆ andAHMET KOCATAS¸ EgeUniversity, Faculty of Fisheries, 35100 Bornova-Izmir, Turkey
Atotal of3 specimens ofthe alpheidspecies Automatebranchialis Holthuis &Gottlieb, 1958,was collected duringexcursions carried outon board the R/V “K.Piri Reis”in the northernAegean Sea (1996and 2000) and in MagosaBay, Cyprus(1997). The specimens examinedare in accordancewith the original description of A.branchialis and,consequently ,nofurther description is required. Areviewof inventorystudies relevant to the species indicates, that A.branchialis constitutes anewrecord for both the Turkishand the Cypriotfauna. Y et, inorder to properlydocument these newrecords, one of the specimens reportedon here is illustrated in g.1. Thealpheidshrimp, Automatebranchialis was describedby Holthuis & Gottlieb (1958)from the coast ofIsrael. Since nospecies belongingto the genus Automate was previouslyknown from the Mediterranean,Holthuis &Gottlieb (1958) supposedthe species to beof Indo-West Paci c origin,having penetrated into the Mediterraneanvia the SuezCanal. However, A.branchialis was nextrecorded fromManfredonia Bay (located inthe southernpart ofthe Adriatic Sea) byFroglia (1975),who stated that “its occurrencein the south-westernAdriatic Sea,an area notaffected byLevantinewaters, stronglysupports the hypothesisthat Automate branchialis is atruly Mediterraneanspecies that was overlookedfor a longtime becauseof its small size andbecause of its habitat”. Ina later work,Š tev ciÏ c´ (1979)reported the species fromthe Malta coasts, withoutcommenting on its zoogeographicalorigin. Koukouras et al. (1992)examined the Decapodamaterial ofthe R/V“Calypso”collected in the southernAegean Sea during1955, and mentionedthe presenceof A.branchialis inthe vicinity ofthe islands Porosand Naxos.Considering the occurrenceof the species inthe AegeanSea, Koukouras et al. (1992)considered A.branchialis analpheid endemic to the Mediterranean Sea,thus supporting the statement ofFroglia (1975).The occurrenceof the species in IraklionBay (Crete, southernAegean Sea) was later established byDounas et al. c KoninklijkeBrill NV ,Leiden,2002 Crustaceana 74(11): 1387-1391 ° 1388 NOTESAND NEWS
Fig. 1. Automatebranchialis Holthuis& Gottlieb,1958. a, antenna;b, telsonand uropods; c, rst pereiopod.Specimen originating from Izmir Gulf.
Fig.2. Distributionof Automatebranchialis Holthuis& Gottlieb,1958 in the Mediterranean Sea.
(1992).It was also reportedfrom the vicinity ofMarseille (Noël, 2001).This fact undoubtedlyproves that this species is distributed throughouta large part ofthe Mediterranean( g. 2).