ABSTRACT

The Mediterranean Sea is a hotspot for introduced marine species, including seaweeds. Among red algae, Grateloupia, with no less than eight introduced species, occupies a prominent position. Here, we report a large foliose Grateloupia species collected in Eastern Harbour, Alexandria, Egypt, which had previously been reported as G. acuminata and G. doryphora. Comparison of rbcL gene sequences revealed that the specimens represent G. gibbesii, a species originally described from Charleston, South Carolina, USA and potentially distributed in the warm temperate and tropical western Atlantic Ocean. The species has been known only from a single location in Alexandria since the early 1990s, it has not been reported in extensive surveys prior to that date, and there are no reports from other Mediterranean sites. This indicates a recent introduction, with shipping the likely vector. We describe the vegetative and reproductive morphology of G. gibbesii as the basis for evaluating variation in female reproductive structures and generic concepts in Grateloupia.

摘要

地中海是引入的海洋物种（包括海藻）的热点。在红藻中，Grateloupia具有不少于八个引进种，在其中占据着突出的位置。在这里，我们提出一个大的叶状繁枝在东港，亚历山大，埃及，早先被报告为收集物种G.尖锐湿疣和G. doryphora。rbc L基因序列的比较表明，标本代表吉布斯氏菌是最初描述于美国南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的一种物种，可能分布于温暖的温带和热带西部大西洋中。自1990年代初以来，该物种仅在亚历山大州的一个地方才知道，该日期之前尚未在广泛的调查中报告，并且没有其他地中海地区的报告。这表明是最近的介绍，并附带了可能的载体。我们描述的营养生长和生殖形态G. gibbesii为女性生殖结构和通用的概念评估变化的基础蜈蚣。