Pegophysema cf. philippiana (Reeve, 1850)

Albano, Paolo G., Steger, Jan, Bakker, Piet A. J., Bogi, Cesare, Bosnjak, Marija, Guy-Haim, Tamar, Huseyinoglu, Mehmet Fatih, LaFollette, Patrick I., Lubinevsky, Hadas, Mulas, Martina, Stockinger, Martina, Azzarone, Michele & Sabelli, Bruno, 2021, Numerous new records of tropical non-indigenous species in the Eastern Mediterranean highlight the challenges of their recognition and identification, ZooKeys 1010, pp. 1-95 : 1

Pegophysema cf. philippiana (Reeve, 1850) Figure 38

New records.

Israel • 1 spcm; Palmachim; 31.9574°N, 34.6645°E; depth 36.2 m; 2 May 2018; soft substrate; box-corer; Shafdan project (sample 24(B)); size: L 15 mm, H 13.5 mm.

Remarks.

Pegophysema philippiana was first found in the Mediterranean Sea in 2018 as a single valve from south of Tel Aviv ( Mienis 2019). The specimen here reported is much smaller, and we acknowledge that the identification of juvenile individuals of this genus can only be tentative. We do not consider it conspecific to native species such as Loripinus fragilis (Philippi, 1836) because this latter species is much more inflated at this size, nor Loripes orbiculatus Poli, 1795 which has a different valve profile. If the identification is confirmed, this would be the first live collected specimen of P. philippiana in the Mediterranean Sea.

Figures

Figure 38. Pegophysema cf. philippiana (Reeve, 1850), Palmachim, Israel, Shafdan project (sample 24 (B )): right valve outer (A) and dorsal (B) views. The pink hue is due to staining with eosin solution. Photograph courtesy S. Bartolini. Scale bar: 5 mm.