The marine Crustacea Decapoda of Sicily (central Mediterranean Sea): a checklist with remarks on their distribution

This paper presents a checklist of Crustacea Decapoda of Sicily, based on previously published records and on original data. The Sicilian waters were divided in three sectors to account for the different habitats present along the northern + western (sector A), eastern (B) and southern (C) coasts, for the sake of a better interpretation of the species distribution. 186 species were recorded between 0 and 800 m depth, 31 of which are reported here for the first time. Sector A hosted 153 species, B 105 species and C 117 species. The dissimilarities among the habitats present in the shallow waters of the three sectors accounted for the low co-occurrence of species: 30 species were common to A and C, 13 to A and B and 2 to B and C. 72 species co-occurred in the three sectors, recorded mainly in offshore soft bottoms investigated by trawl surveys. The importance of the aid given by such surveys as well as by stomach contents analysis, in support to faunistic studies is highlighted. Lastly the affinity of the Mediterranean decapod fauna with that of the north-eastern Atlantic is briefly discussed.