A call for further research on the interaction between the invasive crab Percnon gibbesi and the endemic Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica

P. gibbesi, when present, tends to thrive.To illustrate this, we provide photographic evidence from four sites (two in Mallorca and two in Crete; Fig. 1) showing P. oceanica growing at depths between 0.5 and 2 m on or near rocky substrates (Fig. 1), where we also observed numerous individuals of P. gibbesi in the rocks adjacent to the seagrass.Thus, the assumption that these two species rarely co-occur in the wild is not supported by field observations, even though scientific information on the abundance and spatial distribution of P. gibbesi remains limited.We agree, however, with Moranta et al. that any interaction between the two species is likely restricted to shallow habitats (primarily between 0 and 4 m, but occasionally down to 8 m; (Deudero et al. 2005; Sciberras and Schembri 2008; Puentes and Anton 2025), a point we explicitly acknowledged in our original article published in Biological Invasions (Puentes and Anton 2025).Moranta et al. criticize our experimental design for not including alternative food sources in the laboratory.This critique overlooks the primary aim of our study, which was not to replicate the full dietary