ACTINIARIA, CORALLIMORPHARJA, AND SCLERACTINIA (HEXACORALLIA, ANTHOZOA) OF THE AEGEAN SEA, WITH A CHECKLIST OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND BLACK SEA SPECIES

ABSTRACT

Twenty-one hcxacoral species belonging Lo the orders Actiniaria (3), Corallirnorpharia (1), and Scleractinia (17) were collected in the North Aegean Sea. Three of these (Amphianthus dohrnii, Cladopsammia rolandi, and Monomyces pygmaea ) are new records for the Eastern Mediterranean and two ( Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata) are new records for the Aegean Sea. It was estimated that 56 species belonging to these three orders have been found in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea and are presented here for the first time in a checklist. Zoogeographical consideration of the Eastern Mediterranean hexacoral fauna shows that the bulk of the species can be characterized as Atlanta-Mediterranean, fo llowed by the Mediterranean endemic and cosmopolitan species. In the Aegean, Atlanta-Mediterranean species dominate both in the order Acti niaria (78.5%) and in Scleractinia (70%). However, cosmopolitan species are more numerous among Scleractinia (25%) than among Actiniaria (3.6%); in the latter, endemic species appear with a greater percentage (14.3%). The number of species belonging to these three taxa known from the Mediterranean is estimated to be 88 species, 64 of which are characterized as Atlanto-Mediierranean, 15 as endemic, 8 as cosmopolitan and 1 as lndo-Mediterranean. The species numbers of all the above categories, except the last, seem to decrease generally from the Western to the Eastern Mediterranean and to the Black Sea, from which only a few species are known.