In the present Collective Article information on 26 taxa belonging to 8 Phyla and extended from the western Mediterranean to the Levantine Sea are presented. The new records were found in 9 countries as follows: Spain: first record for the Mediterranean of the crab Cancer bellianus; Algeria: further records of the alien fish Lagocephalus sceleratus to the west Algerian waters; Italy: first report on the presence and establishm...

The Mediterranean bath sponge Spongia officinalis is an iconic species with high socio‐economic value and precarious future owing to unregulated harvesting, mortality incidents and lack of established knowledge regarding its ecology. This study aims to assess genetic diversity and population structure of the species at different geographical scales throughout its distribution. For this purpose, 11 locations in the Eastern Medi...