BioInvasions Records (2016) Volume 5, Issue 2: 123–126 Open Access DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3391/bir.2016.5.2.10 © 2016 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2016 REABIC Rapid Communication The first record of the Sargocentron genus from the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) - who will unravel the current conundrum? 1, 2 6 2 2 Alan Deidun *, Stephen Attard , Melchiore Camilleri , Joe Vella Gaffiero , Diana Hampson , 3 4 5 Alicia Said , Ernesto Azzurro and Menachem Goren 1Department of Geosciences, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, Malta 2St. Andrew’s Dive Cove, St. Simon Street, Xlendi XLN 1302 Gozo, Malta 3School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, England 4Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), Sts Livorno, Piazzale dei Marmi 2, 57123, Livorno, Italy 5Department of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel 6Private individual/Independent (Maltese full-time fisherman) *Corresponding author E-mail:
[email protected] Received: 6 January 2016 / Accepted: 18 March 2016 / Published online: 29 March 2016 Handling editor: John Mark Hanson Abstract The squirrelfish genus, Sargocentron, is reported for the first time from Maltese coastal waters within the Central Mediterranean. The record is based on two individuals caught at two different coastal locations in the Maltese Islands within the space of a few days of each other, through the same fishing technique (trammel nets). In view of the impossibility to collect meristic, morphometric and molecular data from the recorded individuals, and due to the close similarity between a number of Sargocentron congeners, the exact taxonomic identity of the captured individuals could not be conclusively confirmed, although the livery on the two caught individuals resulted to be consistent with that of S.