First record of Scina nana Wagler, 1926 (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Hyperiidea) in Mediterranean Sea from the northern coastal waters north of Syria (eastern Mediterranean)

Global biodiversity repositories, including GBIF, OBIS and the authoritative taxonomic database WoRMS, consistently indicate that Scina nana is a globally rare holoplanktonic amphipod. None of these databases contains any historical or contemporary evidence of the species within the Mediterranean Basin. This complete absence of records strongly suggests that the specimen documented from Syrian coastal waters represents the first known occurrence of S. nana in the eastern Mediterranean. In this study, Scina nana was observed for the first time in the coastal waters of Syria (Latakia Basin), this species being found mainly in tropical regions of all the world’s oceans, except the Mediterranean Sea. Given the complete lack of previous Mediterranean records, the appearance of S. nana in the region is most plausibly interpreted as a recent event, supporting its classification as non-indigenous species that has only recently entered the basin. The rapid warming of Mediterranean waters in recent decades may have provided conditions favourable for the arrival or temporary establishment of this species. Additional factors, such as broader changes in the thermohaline structure of the eastern Mediterranean, may also have facilitated its introduction to the Syrian coast.