Mediterranean Marine Science Volume 6/2, 2005, 63-118 Annotated list of marine alien species in the Mediterranean with records of the worst invasive species A. zeNETOS1, M.E. ÇINAR2, M.A. pANcucci - pApAdopoulou1, J.g. hARMeliN3, g. fuRNARi4, f. ANdAloRo5, N. bellou1, N. STREFTARIS1 and h. zibRoWiuS3 1 Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Oceanography, Anavissos 19013, Attica, Greece 2 Ege University, Faculty of Fisheries, Department of Hydrobiology, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey 3 Centre d’Océanologie de Marseille, UMR 6540 DIMAR, Station Marine d’Endoume, 13007 Marseille, France 4 Università di Catania, Dipartimento di Botanica, Via A. Longo 19, 95125 Catania, Italy 5 Istituto Centrale per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica Applicata al Mare (ICRAM), Via E. Amari 124 90139 Palermo, Italy e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract This collaborative effort by many specialists across the Mediterranean presents an updated an- notated list of alien marine species in the Mediterranean Sea. Alien species have been grouped into six broad categories namely established, casual, questionable, cryptogenic, excluded and invasive, and presented in lists of major ecofunctional/taxonomic groups. The establishment success within each group is provided while the questionable and excluded records are commented in brief. A total of 963 alien species have been reported from the Mediterranean until December 2005, 218 of which have been classified as excluded (23%) leaving 745 of the recorded species as valid aliens. Of these 385 (52%) are already well established, 262 (35%) are casual records, while 98 species (13%) remain “questionable” records. The species cited in this work belong mostly to zoobenthos and in par- ticular to Mollusca and Crustacea, while Fish and Phytobenthos are the next two groups which prevail among alien biota in the Mediterranean.