1077 Accepted by D. Gordon: 26 Sept. 2005; published: 7 Nov. 2005 1 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2005 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 1077: 1–23 (2005) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Sipunculans from the coast of northern Cyprus (eastern Mediterranean Sea) S. AÇIK 1 , G. V. MURINA 2 , M. E. ÇINAR 1 & Z. ERGEN 1 1 Ege University, Faculty of Fisheries, Department of Hydrobiology, 35100, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey 2 Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Academy of Sciences, 335000, Sevastopol, Ukraine serminacik@yahoo.com; murina@dvs.net.ua; melih.cinar@ege.edu.tr; zeki.ergen@ege.edu.tr Abstract The present study deals with the species of Sipuncula collected from northern Cyprus in 1997 and 1998 by RV K. Piri Reis at depths ranging from 0 to 600 m. Faunistic analysis of the material yielded a total of 6 species and 5 subspecies belonging to four families Golfingiidae, Phascolionidae, Phascolosomatidae, and Aspidosiphonidae, of which four species (Nephasoma (Nephasoma) constrictum, Phascolosoma (Phascolosoma) scolops, P. (P.) agassizii agassizii and P. (P.) stephensoni) are reported for the first time from the eastern Mediterranean. Among the habitats sampled, Posidonia oceanica and mud were represented by the highest number of species (6 species), followed by rocks (5 species) and Cystoseira crinita (5 species). Quantitative analysis of shallow-water benthic habitats indicated that sipunculan density in the area ranged from 25 individuals m -2 to 350 individuals m -2 . According to the MDS analysis, there are two major species assemblages in the area, mainly structured by the types of habitats and depth. Key words: Sipuncula; distribution; ecology; biometry; Lessepsian; Cyprus; eastern Mediterranean Sea Introduction Previous reports of Sipunculans from the coast of Cyprus comprise the publications by Murina (1964), Hadjichristophorou et al. (1997), Argyrou et al. (1999) and Galil & Zibrowius (1998). According to these studies, only 7 species occur along the Cyprus coast, compared to 33 species reported from the entire Mediterranean basinal areas (Pancucci- Papadopoulou et al. 1999), 21 species from the eastern Mediterranean Sea (Murina et al. 1999; Pancucci-Papadopoulou et al. 1999), 17 species from the coast of Greece (Murina et al. 1999; Pancucci-Papadopoulou et al. 1999), and 11 species from Turkish coasts (Ostroumoff 1896; Demir 1952; Caspers 1968; Kocata 1978; Ergen et al. 1994; Çinar et