Branchiomma luctuosum ( Grube, 1870 )

Keppel, Erica, Tovar, Maria Ana & Ruiz, Gregory, 2015, First record and establishment of Branchiomma coheni (Polychaeta: Sabellidae) in the Atlantic Ocean and review of non – indigenous species of the genus, Zootaxa 4058 (4), pp. 499-518 : 510

Branchiomma luctuosum ( Grube, 1870)

Branchiomma luctuosum was described from the Red Sea and reported as introduced for the first time in the Lucrino Lake (Naples, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) by Bianchi (1983). Since this first finding, many records of this species have been reported in the western and central Mediterranean basins ( Sordino & Gambi 1992; Licciano et al. 2002; Mastrototaro et al. 2004; El Haddad et al. 2008; Licciano & Giangrande 2008; Giangrande et al. 2012), as well as in the eastern Mediterranean ( Knight-Jones et al. 1991, Arvanitidis 2000; Simboura & Nicolaidou 2001; Çinar 2005; Çinar et al. 2006). It was included in the 100 ‘Worst Invasives alien marine species in the Mediterranean’ ( Streftaris & Zenetos 2006). Moreover, this species was reported colonizing the Brazilian coast ( Nogueira et al. 2006; Costa-Paiva et al. 2007).

In the Red Sea, this species has been found mainly in the more sheltered areas of coral reefs ( Grube 1870). In the Aegean Sea it has been found associated with sponges ( Arvanitidis 2000), while its presence in Italian waters has mostly been recorded in lagoon environments ( Sordino & Gambi 1992; Knight-Jones et al. 1991) or sheltered marine areas ( Sordino & Gambi 1992; Licciano et al. 2002; Matarrese et al. 2004). In Valencia Port, El Haddad et al. (2008) found specimens of B. luctuosum mostly on rocky substrates, grouped in small aggregates of specimens or more rarely isolated. Specimens were present in practically all orientations of the substrate, but especially on the vertical surfaces of the docks where densities reached 320–370 ind./m2. In Lake Faro, it was found in a maximum density of 19 ind./m2 ( Giangrande et al. 2012). In Brasil, it was found on rocky shores where it was the dominant sabellid sharing the space with B. patriota Nogueira, Rossi & López, 2006 and Parasabella microphtalma ( Nogueira et al. 2006) .