Wittmann & Abed-Navandi 2025
Wittmann & Abed-Navandi 2025
Wittmann, K.J. & D. Abed-Navandi, 2025. First records of introduced Neomysis awatschensis (Brandt, 1851) in the Atlantic and Rhopalophthalmus tartessicus Vilas-Fernández, Drake and Sorbe, 2008 in the Gulf of Biscay (Crustacea: Mysida). BioInvasions Records 14 (4): 981–1003.
https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2025.14.4.18
The euryhalobious N-Pacific to Arctic endemic Neomysis awatschensis was determined in samples taken in 2023–2025 in the NE-Atlantic, namely in polyhaline to mixoeuhaline waters of former oyster beds in the Gulf of Biscay and in an oligohaline lake at the coast of the Dutch Wadden Sea. The great distance along the coastline of about 1500 km between these stations suggests that this mysid has already established itself along NE-Atlantic coasts. The oyster beds in the Gulf of Biscay also yielded the mysid Rhopalophthalmus tartessicus, previously known only from about 1900 km distance along the coastline from brackish waters on the Atlantic coast of southwestern Spain. Anthropochorous introduction appears likely for both species; the potential pathways remain unclear. World distribution and combined pictorial and textual keys to the species of Neomysis are included in order to facilitate future assessments of potential range expansions.
Non-native species; anthropochorous introduction; Northeast Atlantic; interoceanic expansion; key to species
Records of non-indigenous species: Neomysis awatschensis (Brandt, 1851) and Rhopalophthalmus tartessicus Vilas-Fernández, Drake & Sorbe, 2008
Combined pictorial and textual keys to all 18 currently known species of Neomysis: N. americana, N. awatschensis, N. czerniawskii, N. ilyapai, N. integer, N. intermedia, N. japonica, N. kadiakensis, N. mercedis, N. meridionalis, N. mirabilis, N. monticellii, N. nigra, N. orientalis, N. patagona, N. rayii, N. sopayi and N. spinosa.