The story begins on 12 August 2024, when researchers sampling along the French shoreline at Evian-les-Bains collected multiple samples representing different lake substrates using a Surber net with a 500 micrometre mesh and a 20 by 25 centimetre aperture. The site itself is a study in human-modified shorelines: a vertical quay wall runs along the water’s edge, the substrate is composed primarily of boulders and cobbles partially covered by quagga mussels, zebra mussels and bryophytes, and short sections of riprap intermittently reinforce the bank. Water depth at the base of the shoreline ranges from roughly one to 1.5 metres, and the lakebed slopes moderately for about 80 metres offshore, where it reaches six to seven metres before dropping away steeply.

Crucially, the two amphipod specimens that would make history were not dredged from deep soft sediments but plucked from a bryophyte sample growing on rocks at a water depth of just 0.2 metres, within the wave-splash zone where riparian bryophytes typically occur in Lake Geneva. These mosses, such as Orthotrichum species, are essentially riparian plants that tolerate periodic submersion rather than truly aquatic species like Fontinalis, and their development is generally absent or very limited below the wave-splash zone. This narrow, mossy ribbon along the shore turned out to be exactly the kind of habitat C. trichiatus finds congenial, a detail that may reshape how biologists think about where alien amphipods hide in lakes.

Identifying amphipods is notoriously fiddly work, and the researchers leaned on precise anatomical characters to separate their specimens from the lake’s other crustacean residents. The genus Chaetogammarus can easily be distinguished from Gammarus and Dikerogammarus by the morphology of the third uropod and the first and second urosome segments. In both Dikerogammarus and Chaetogammarus, the inner ramus of the third uropod is very short, whereas it is well developed in Gammarus. Furthermore, Chaetogammarus and Gammarus lack the paired dorsal protuberances bearing spines on the first and second urosome segments, a characteristic feature of Dikerogammarus species. Among Chaetogammarus species, C. trichiatus is characterized by a third uropod densely covered with recurved setae, and even in females these recurved setae are at least densely developed at the apex of the third uropod, separating it from the related C. ischnus.

Because morphological identification alone left some uncertainty, the two specimens were checked with molecular techniques in 2025. Total genomic DNA was extracted using a BioSprint 96 extraction robot following a non-destructive protocol that enables post-extraction morphological study of the specimens. A 181 base-pair portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene, the workhorse barcode for animal identification, was amplified using the LCO1490 and CO1-CFMRb primers. The polymerase chain reaction mix, prepared in 25 microlitre volumes, included template DNA, both primers, dNTP solution, buffer containing magnesium chloride, bovine serum albumin, GoTaq G2 DNA Polymerase and sterile water. Optimized conditions involved an initial denaturation at 95 degrees Celsius for five minutes, followed by five cycles with annealing at 45 degrees and 35 cycles with annealing at 50 degrees, each with 30-second denaturation and 45-second extension steps, and a final extension at 72 degrees for seven minutes. Purification and Sanger sequencing were carried out commercially.

The molecular verdict was unambiguous. Both sequences were identified as C. trichiatus, clustering in a single clade with reference sequences of the species from the Barcode of Life Data System with 100 percent support. The two specimens, bearing GBIF codes GBIFCH00967050 and GBIFCH00967051, are now housed in the Department of Zoology of the Naturéum in Lausanne, Switzerland, their exoskeletons well preserved after the soft tissues were used for sequencing. Morphology and molecules had spoken with one voice: a new alien species had been documented in Lake Geneva.

The native distribution of C. trichiatus extends across the Ponto-Caspian region, including the lagoons and estuarine habitats of the northwestern Black Sea, as well as the Azov Sea, their deltas and the coastal lakes of Bulgaria and Romania. The species was first reported as an alien in Germany in 1996 and has since spread throughout the Danube basin and several catchments in northeastern France, probably via the Main-Danube Canal. In Switzerland it has been recorded in the Rhine basin since 2003 and, more recently, in the Aare basin in 2025. It has also turned up in the upper Dnieper River in Belarus and the Oder catchment in Central Europe. What makes the animal such a successful colonizer is a potent biological toolkit: a relatively short life cycle and generation time, brood protection, an omnivorous feeding strategy and high ecological plasticity, including the ability to tolerate broad salinity gradients.

Yet the species is only infrequently recorded in lake environments and is generally considered more closely associated with large rivers, where it occupies habitats ranging from artificial riprap structures to gravel banks, mud, roots and stony substrates. Records from the lower and middle French Rhone River suggest an ongoing expansion, with occurrences reported downstream of Lyon at several sites between 2017 and 2022 in the main river channel and two active secondary channels, indicating a slow and progressive upstream colonization of the Rhone basin prior to the Lake Geneva detection. Nevertheless, because the species has not been recorded in the French Upper Rhone, it is unlikely that its arrival in the lake originated from upstream dispersal through the French Rhone corridor. The absence of records from the littoral zone of the lake’s western basin, despite more than ten years of regular monitoring, further supports this. According to earlier research, proximity to ports is a key predictor of the distribution of several Ponto-Caspian invasive species, including C. trichiatus, making human-mediated transport, perhaps via recreational boats, the most plausible explanation.

The finding also carries a warning for the lake’s existing community. In Lake Geneva, non-native crustaceans now constitute almost the entire amphipod fauna, with native Gammarus pulex and Gammarus fossarum progressively displaced by the killer shrimp Dikerogammarus villosus and only rarely found in surveys. The present detection suggests that C. trichiatus can coexist with related crustaceans already present in the lake, such as D. villosus and Chelicorophium curvispinum, but its establishment may lead to future changes in community structure. Competitive interactions are likely within the bryophyte mats covering riprap and cobble habitats, potentially affecting populations of C. curvispinum and Dikerogammarus species, as well as other bryophyte-associated macroinvertebrates like insect larvae and small gastropods. Those deeper soft substrates and macrophytes where the other species also occur, generally in lower numbers, may provide alternative refuges that limit the impact of competition. Beyond Lake Geneva, the record raises the possibility of further colonization of other peri-alpine and mountain lakes, a particular concern for alpine lakes supporting glacial relict populations of the native amphipod Gammarus lacustris, where introduced species could threaten conservation-important populations.

Practically speaking, the discovery should change how surveys are interpreted and conducted. Small individuals of C. trichiatus may easily be mistaken for Gammarus species when examined only in lateral view, particularly during routine sorting of lake samples, so careful examination of the third uropod is essential, while the dense recurved setae on that appendage allow separation from C. ischnus. Re-examination of preserved material could determine whether the species had been present in Lake Geneva before its first detection in 2024, and targeted monitoring near the lake’s major ports may prove especially valuable for early detection of newly introduced exotics. The identification key provided by the authors should facilitate routine recognition during macroinvertebrate surveys and reduce the risk of future misidentifications. For now, a mossy strip of shoreline at Evian-les-Bains has delivered a reminder that Europe’s invasion frontiers run not only down its great rivers but across its treasured lakes, one small crustacean at a time.

Subject of Research: First record of the Ponto-Caspian amphipod Chaetogammarus trichiatus in Lake Geneva

Article Title: First record of the Ponto-Caspian amphipod Chaetogammarus trichiatus (Martynov, 1932) (= Echinogammarus trichiatus ) ( Crustacea , Gammaridae ) in Lake Geneva

Article References: Marle, P., Stoffel, C., & Renahy, S. (2026). First record of the Ponto-Caspian amphipod Chaetogammarus trichiatus (Martynov, 1932) (= Echinogammarus trichiatus) (Crustacea, Gammaridae) in Lake Geneva. Alpine Entomology, 10, 163-168. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.10.207817

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/alpento.10.207817

Keywords: invasive species, amphipods, Lake Geneva, Ponto-Caspian, DNA barcoding, freshwater ecology, biodiversity, First, record, amphipod, Chaetogammarus, trichiatus

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The discovery of a melanistic Asia Minor Dwarf Racer on the Anatolian mainland carries weight that extends well beyond a single unusual specimen. Until this record, every published observation of a dark morph in Eirenis modestus came from small islands scattered across the eastern Aegean: the Yassıca and Sarıot islets off Muğla Province, Kastellorizo in the Dodecanese, and most recently Symi. Islands are evolutionary laboratories in the classic sense, and repeated reports of melanism from insular populations naturally invite speculation about founder effects, genetic drift, or local adaptation to island conditions. A mainland specimen complicates that narrative. It demonstrates that the capacity for melanistic coloration is not confined to isolated island gene pools but is present, at least occasionally, within continental populations where the species is presumably most abundant and most genetically diverse.

The specimen itself was a young individual, as indicated by its modest snout-vent length of 155 millimeters, well below the maximum total length of roughly 600 millimeters reported for the species. This matters for interpreting its appearance. In many snake species, the dark pileus mark and nuchal collar that characterize E. modestus fade with age, and pattern expression can change substantially between juveniles and adults. The greyish-white scales scattered across the neck region of this specimen, fading rapidly toward midbody, suggest that the animal was in the process of transitioning from juvenile patterning toward adult coloration, with melanistic pigmentation overriding the typical light brown or grey dorsal ground color. The progressive darkening of the ventral scales toward the tail is also noteworthy, since ventral coloration is often less variable than dorsal patterning and can provide useful comparative characters in studies of chromatic anomalies.

The pholidotic data collected from the specimen serve an important function beyond simple species identification. Because melanism can dramatically alter the external appearance of a snake, researchers must rule out the possibility that an unusually dark individual belongs to a different, naturally dark species. The scale counts recorded here, including seventeen dorsal scale rows at midbody, a single preocular and two postocular scales, seven supralabials on each side, eight sublabials, 161 ventral scales, and 72 subcaudal scales, all fall within the documented ranges for E. modestus and distinguish it from other small Eirenis species that occur in southern Anatolia. This careful morphological verification is what elevates the record from an interesting photograph to a scientifically defensible range extension for the melanistic morph itself.

The biogeographic pattern emerging from the combined records deserves closer attention. All known melanistic individuals of this species, including the new mainland specimen, have been found in localities characterized by relatively high humidity and Mediterranean or coastal climatic influence. Çağman and Demre sit on the southwestern Anatolian coast, an area of mild winters, hot summers, and substantial atmospheric moisture influenced by the Mediterranean Sea. The island records from Kastellorizo, Symi, and the Muğla islets share similar maritime climates. This clustering is consistent with the predictions of Gloger’s rule, the observation, first formalized in the nineteenth century and refined by later comparative work, that animals inhabiting warm and humid environments tend to deposit more dark eumelanin pigment than those in arid or cold regions. The mechanistic basis of Gloger’s rule remains debated, but leading explanations include the role of melanin in feather or scale structural integrity under humid conditions, enhanced protection against feather-degrading or skin-colonizing microorganisms, and improved background matching against the darker, more vegetated substrates typical of humid habitats.

The alternative explanation, thermal melanism, holds that darker individuals gain a heating advantage in cool climates because dark surfaces absorb solar radiation more efficiently, allowing faster warming and higher equilibrium body temperatures. This hypothesis has received substantial empirical support in some groups. Comparative phylogenetic analyses of Eurasian vipers have found evidence consistent with darker coloration evolving in cooler environments, and similar patterns have been reported for elapid snakes. Field studies of polymorphic populations have also documented potential fitness consequences of melanism, including higher growth rates, improved body condition, longer daily activity periods, and enhanced locomotor performance in dark individuals, all of which could translate into meaningful survival and reproductive advantages under certain climatic regimes.

However, the evidence for thermal melanism is not universal, and recent broad-scale analyses have complicated the picture. A meta-analysis covering polymorphic terrestrial snake species found that the prevalence of melanism correlated more strongly with annual precipitation than with temperature, lending support to the idea that moisture-related selection, in the spirit of Gloger’s rule, may be the more important driver of dark morph distributions at large geographic scales. The same analysis noted that melanistic snakes appear to be encountered more frequently in coastal regions and on islands than in mainland populations, a pattern that the present record only partially fits. The Çağman–Demre locality is coastal, but it lies on the mainland rather than an island, which weakens any argument that insularity itself is the primary driver of melanism in this species. Instead, the shared climatic profile of all recorded localities points toward humidity or related environmental variables as the more plausible common factor.

Predation pressure introduces a further layer of complexity that any adaptive explanation must address. The typical coloration of E. modestus, a light brown or grey dorsum with a darker collar and pileus, presumably functions as crypsis against the pale, rocky, and sparsely vegetated substrates the species inhabits. A uniformly black snake moving across light limestone or sun-bleached soil may be considerably more conspicuous to visually oriented predators, including birds of prey, mammals, and larger reptiles. In island populations, reduced predator communities are sometimes invoked to explain the persistence of conspicuous color morphs, since relaxed predation pressure can allow otherwise disadvantageous phenotypes to persist. The mainland record raises the question of whether predation regimes in coastal southwestern Anatolia are similarly permissive, or whether the melanistic morph survives there despite, rather than because of, its conspicuousness. Without data on predator communities and predation rates at these localities, this remains speculative, but it represents a testable dimension of the phenomenon.

The genetic basis of melanism in E. modestus is entirely unknown, and this gap limits interpretation of the current record. In other reptile groups, melanism can arise through single-gene mutations with strong phenotypic effects, through polygenic variation, or through developmental plasticity. If melanism in this species is controlled by a simple recessive allele, for example, it could persist at low frequencies in mainland populations through a balance of mutation, drift, and selection, appearing only rarely as homozygous individuals. Alternatively, if the trait is polygenic, its expression might vary continuously and be more sensitive to environmental conditions. Distinguishing between these possibilities would require controlled breeding experiments or population genomic sampling, neither of which has yet been attempted for this species. The absence of any published estimate of melanism frequency within E. modestus populations is a related obstacle; without baseline frequency data from both mainland and island sites, it is impossible to determine whether the mainland record represents a genuinely rare event or simply the first documented instance of a more widespread phenomenon.

The collection circumstances of the specimen also merit comment. The animal was found beneath a flat stone at approximately half past five in the afternoon on the ninth of May, consistent with the species’ known behavior of sheltering under cover objects during daylight hours and emerging at twilight to forage. Its diet in the region consists primarily of terrestrial arthropods, particularly beetles, orthopterans, and centipedes, with occasional small lizards taken as prey. This crepuscular and largely invertebrate-based ecology means that E. modestus is not a strongly heliothermic species in the way that basking vipers or lacertid lizards are, which may weaken the expected advantage of thermal melanism in this lineage. A snake that spends much of its active period under cover or foraging in shaded microhabitats gains less from rapid solar heating than one that basks openly, and this ecological context could help explain why the moisture-related hypothesis appears more consistent with the observed geographic pattern of melanism in this species.

From a broader biogeographic perspective, the Anatolian mainland is the center of abundance for E. modestus, with three nominal subspecies distributed across western, central, and southern Türkiye and neighboring regions. The nominate subspecies E. m. modestus occupies Armenia, Azerbaijan, eastern Georgia, southern Russia, and northwestern Iran, while E. m. semimaculatus occurs in central and western Anatolia and E. m. cilicius in southern Türkiye. The Çağman–Demre locality falls within the range of E. m. cilicius, the southern Anatolian subspecies, adding a taxonomic dimension to the record. Populations from southern Anatolia and parts of the Aegean are known to exhibit variable rows of dark blotches on the anterior body, particularly within E. m. semimaculatus, suggesting that the species already possesses considerable latent variation in dark pigmentation. It is plausible that melanism represents an extreme expression of this existing variation, rather than an entirely novel mutation, though this hypothesis has not been tested.

Future research directions follow naturally from these observations. Systematic sampling across the Anatolian mainland and adjacent islands, ideally with standardized survey effort, would allow researchers to estimate the true frequency of melanistic individuals in different populations and test whether frequency correlates with humidity, temperature, insularity, or substrate characteristics. Genetic sampling of both melanistic and typically colored individuals from the same populations would clarify the inheritance pattern of the trait. Radiotelemetry or thermal imaging studies could directly measure whether melanistic individuals achieve different body temperatures from normally colored conspecifics under natural conditions, providing a field test of the thermal advantage hypothesis at the intraspecific level. Finally, experimental approaches using clay model snakes or artificial prey could quantify differential predation on dark versus light morphs in coastal and inland habitats, addressing the predator-mediated selection component of the puzzle. Each of these avenues would transform a growing collection of anecdotal records into a genuine test of the ecological and evolutionary forces shaping color variation in this understudied species.

In the meantime, the Çağman–Demre record stands as a reminder that even well-documented species in relatively accessible regions can still yield surprises. The Asia Minor Dwarf Racer is not rare, and much of its range lies within areas frequented by herpetologists, yet melanistic individuals have now been documented only a handful of times across more than three decades of published literature. Whether this reflects genuine rarity of the morph, insufficient survey effort directed at detecting it, or a combination of both remains an open question. Continued documentation of additional cases, particularly from the mainland where the species is most abundant, will be essential for building the dataset needed to evaluate the geographic distribution, frequency, and adaptive significance of melanism in this small but biogeographically interesting colubrid.

Subject of Research: …

Article Title: A melanistic Eirenis modestus (Martin, 1838) from the Anatolian mainland: first record outside island populations

Article References: A melanistic Eirenis modestus (Martin, 1838) from the Anatolian mainland: first record outside island populations. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.3897/caucasiana.5.e204607

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/caucasiana.5.e204607

Keywords: melanistic, Eirenis, modestus, Martin, Anatolian, mainland, first, record, outside, island, populations, scientific research

Red algae are overwhelmingly marine: only about ten percent of the group occurs in freshwater, and those species are stenovalent, meaning they tolerate only a narrow range of environmental conditions. They favour rivers with running water, where they colonise rocks exposed to turbulent flow. This ecological pickiness makes some of them rare, restricted to specific habitats, and unable to survive in anthropised areas. Roughly seventy percent of freshwater red algae belong to the order Batrachospermales, whose members typically form macroscopic uniaxial gametophytes with whorled branches that give a bead-like appearance, or a pseudoparenchymatous thallus with a mucilaginous or cartilaginous consistency. Most have a heteromorphic triphasic life history comprising a sporophyte known as the Chantransia stage, a gametophyte, and a carposporophyte phase.

Molecular phylogenetics based on two markers now places the entire order in a single family, the Batrachospermaceae, with 21 genera including Lemanea and Paralemanea. The two genera have an intricate taxonomic history that culminated in their separation as distinct genera. Mitochondrial genome work has corroborated that split: Paralemanea species possess the largest genomes and most extensive intergenic regions sequenced to date within the Batrachospermales, and they are the only taxa in the order to contain introns, which are absent in all other members, including the sister genus Lemanea.

Morphologically, the genera are distinguished by a handful of diacritical characters. Lemanea carries spermatangia arranged in circular papillae at the nodes, has T- or L-shaped ray cells abutting the cortex, and a main axis without cortication. Paralemanea instead has spermatangia arranged in rings around the nodes, simple ray cells organised in two layers — a proximal layer that does not touch the outer cortex and a distal, generally Y-branched layer connected to the cortex — and cortical filaments surrounding the axial filaments. Some Paralemanea species also lack stalks. In Italy, reports of both genera are scarce and scattered, and in Sicily only three records of Lemanea exist, all referring to Lemanea fluviatilis. No Paralemanea species had ever been published for the island.

During field surveys from May to early July 2022 at two sites along the Alcantara River — Passo Mojo at 547 metres above sea level and Monte San Nicola at 400 metres, both in the territory of Castiglione di Sicilia — the team found numerous thalli referable to Lemanea and Paralemanea. The river flows eastwards between the Nebrodi and Peloritani mountains on its northern side and the volcano Etna on its southern side, and over millennia it has slowly eroded Etna’s hard lava rocks, creating rapids, waterfalls and narrow deep canyons alternating with typical riffle-run stretches. Samples were taken to the Laboratory of Phycology at the University of Catania, fixed in four percent formaldehyde or preserved in water and ethanol, and examined under an Olympus BX 40 microscope for the vegetative and reproductive characters needed to separate genera and species. Representative thalli were dried and deposited in the CAT herbarium, algae section, of the University of Catania.

The specimens collected at Monte San Nicola matched Lemanea fucina, a species with no previous reports anywhere in Italy. Its thalli formed light to dark green tufts about 10 to 13 centimetres long, stalked and gradually narrowing toward the base, with many branches and often secondary ones, while false branches appeared rarely where the thallus had broken off. Nodes and internodes were easily distinguished. The nodal basal portion measured 524 to 714 micrometres, the nodal median portion 643 to 809 micrometres and the nodal apical portion 619 to 786 micrometres, while the internodal portions ranged from 405 to 524 micrometres basally, 476 to 524 micrometres medially and 430 to 476 micrometres apically, giving a nodal-internodal ratio of 1.4 to 1.6. The central axial cell lacked a cortex and bore T-shaped ray cells, visible in both cross and longitudinal sections. The thalli were monoecious, with spermatangial papillae distributed in circular patches on the nodes and carposporophytes borne on the inner portion of the cortex. Carposporangia arranged in chains measured 35 to 40 micrometres long with a diameter of 20 to 30 micrometres. The Chantransia stage was not found.

Ecologically, L. fucina was found exclusively at Monte San Nicola, a natural site with rapids formed by erosive processes, where it colonised the surfaces of volcanic rocks within microhabitats such as concavities shaped by high-energy turbulent flow, which provided optimal substrates for thallus attachment. Only a few thalli were observed within a community dominated by P. catenata. Associated taxa included the cyanobacterium Nostoc and the macroalgae Cladophora and Vaucheria, which were abundant in areas with lower hydrodynamic stress and during the summer, when reduced river discharge produced less turbulent conditions and the subsequent desiccation of L. fucina.

Paralemanea catenata, by contrast, turned up at both sites. Its thalli formed turfs arising from a perennial basal crust, roughly 2 to 17 centimetres tall, with uniaxial, pseudoparenchymatous, unstalked, dark green and slightly curved upright axes lacking true branches, though young branches developed where axes were broken, forming the so-called false branches. The nodal basal portion varied between 381 and 520 micrometres, the nodal median between 596 and 820 micrometres and the nodal apical between 320 and 636 micrometres, while internodal portions measured 212 to 380, 437 to 540 and 400 to 485 micrometres respectively, with a nodal-internodal ratio of 1.3 to 1.4. The central axis was composed of numerous cortical filaments with radial cells in two layers, the proximal one not touching the outer cortex and the distal one Y-shaped and connected to it. The monoecious thalli bore spermatangial sori in narrow, sometimes interrupted nodal rings, and carposporangia in chains of 25 to 30 micrometres in length and 20 to 25 micrometres in diameter. Crucially, the reddish to brownish Chantransia stage was observed in several thalli, growing near the base of the gametophyte with alternating or unilateral branching, and in one case was seen producing juvenile gametophytes from its filaments.

At Monte San Nicola, P. catenata shared its habitat with L. fucina, while at Passo Mojo, an artificial water bridle, it colonised vertical surfaces beneath a small waterfall at the end of the concrete bridle. In early July, as river capacity decreases and rock surfaces dry, the thalli desiccate but the species persists as a perennial crust on the substrates. At both sites it formed extensive populations covering several square metres, becoming the physiognomic dominant, especially in areas more exposed to the flow. During summer, Cladophora and Vaucheria formed mosaic-like assemblages on surfaces colonised by P. catenata, growing between or above its thalli, and in some instances completely overgrew the basal crusts following the senescence of the gametophytes.

The findings extend the known European ranges of both species further south than previously reported, with P. catenata’s only prior Italian record coming from the Listi stream in Aspromonte, southern Italy. Interestingly, the carposporangia of both Sicilian species were smaller than literature values. The study also underscores how taxonomic ambiguity in the Batrachospermaceae — where diagnostic characters can vary with thallus age and maturity, and repeated revisions have left the same species described under different synonyms, as with L. fucina and L. mamillosa — complicates identification. Ecologically, the contrast is telling: L. fucina was restricted to the natural, low-anthropisation site, while P. catenata tolerated the more human-affected Passo Mojo, suggesting a broader ecological tolerance. The presence of carposporangia in both species may indicate healthy populations in non-anthropised stretches of the Alcantara. Because Lemanea and Paralemanea require turbulent water, climate change scenarios predicting reduced precipitation and river flow could favour competitively advantaged taxa such as Cladophora and Vaucheria at their expense, making sensitive freshwater red algae valuable early-warning indicators for the conservation and monitoring of river habitats under growing anthropogenic pressure.

Subject of Research: Botany

Article Title: First record of Lemanea fucina Bory in Italy and Paralemanea catenata (Kützing) Vis & Sheath ( Batrachospermaceae , Rhodophyta ) in Sicily (Italy)

Article References: Pagana, I., Di Stefano, M., Alongi, G., Cristaudo, A., & Emma, G. (2026). First record of Lemanea fucina Bory in Italy and Paralemanea catenata (Kützing) Vis & Sheath (Batrachospermaceae, Rhodophyta) in Sicily (Italy). Italian Botanist, 22, 51-63. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.22.196629

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.22.196629

Keywords: freshwater red algae, Batrachospermaceae, Lemanea fucina, Paralemanea catenata, Alcantara River, Sicily, biogeography, First, record, Lemanea, fucina, Bory