The alien alga Caulerpa taxifolia (Vahl) C. Agardh var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman and Procaccini move their northern and western limits

Caulerpa taxifolia (Vahl) C. Agardh var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman and Procacini is an invasive green alga recently reported in the Mediterranean Sea. The first record was in Turkey in 2007 and later it has been reported in Sicily (2009), Cyprus (2013), Malta (2015), Rhodes (2016) and Libya (2017). In the current study we present additional records of this species expanding its range into the Eastern and Western Mediterranean Sea (Eastern and Western Sicilian shoreline, Calabrian Tyrrhenian coast, Sardinia and Tunisia) as well as in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Our specimens were collected on various substrates and identified morphologically.