Aquatic Invasions (2010) Volume 5, Supplement 1: S1-S4 This is an Open Access article; doi: 10.3391/ai.2010.5.S1.001 © 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2010 REABIC Open Access S1 Aquatic Invasions Records First record of the Japanese shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus (de Haan, 1835) (Brachyura: Grapsoidea: Varunidae) from the Black Sea Drago ş Micu 1* , Victor Ni ţă 1 and Valentina Todorova 2 1 National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”, 900581 Constanţa, Romania 2 Institute of Oceanology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences “Fridtjof Nansen”, Varna, Bulgaria E-mail: dragos.micu@gmail.com (DM), victor_nicolae@yahoo.com (VN), vtodorova@io-bas.bg (VT) * Corresponding author Received: 10 November 2009 / Accepted: 4 December 2009 / Published online: 11 January 2010 Abstract The Japanese shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus is recorded for the first time from a Black Sea locality: Tomis Marina in Constanţ a, Romania. The suggested vector of introduction is as adults in the hull fouling of yachts. The species has not established and salinity requirements for larval development make it unlikely that it will ever establish in the Black Sea. Key words: Hemigrapsus sanguineus, Black Sea, Romania, not established Introduction The Japanese shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus (de Haan, 1835) is native to the North-Western Pacific, where it is distributed from Peter the Great Bay, Russia to Hong Kong, including the coasts of Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan (McDermott 1998a). It lives in high energy habitats, usually in crevices between boulders of rocky shores, but also on sand provided some rocks are present (Fukui 1988; Benson 2005). The species already has a history of transoceanic invasions. In September 1988 H. sanguineus was first discovered in New Jersey, on the Atlantic coast of the United States and by 1990 a breeding population was already established (Williams and McDermott 1990; McDermott 1991). At present it ranges from Maine to North Carolina (Delaney et al. 2008). In 1999 it was recorded from the Atlantic coasts of Europe, in Le Havre, France and the Oosterschelde estuary in The Netherlands (Breton et al. 2002). It has established there and now is present in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and France (Obert et al. 2007; d’Udekem d’Acoz and Faasse 2002; Faasse 2004; d’Udekem d’Acoz 2006; Kerckhof et al. 2007; Dauvin 2009; Dauvin et al. 2009). In 2003 a single adult male Hemigrapsus sanguineus was recorded from the northern Adriatic Sea (Schubart 2003) and this remains the only known Mediterranean record to date. Material and methods In August 2008 we studied the rocky midlittoral and sublittoral crustacean fauna around Constanţa, Romania by snorkeling and SCUBA diving. Samples were fixed in 10% buffered seawater-formalin for 24 h and then transferred to 70% ethanol for storage. During this investigation one adult male Hemigrapsus sanguineus was collected inside Tomis Marina (N 44°10'43'', E 28°39'37'') on 27 August 2008, from under a rock just above the waterline (Figures 1-2). The specimen has been deposited at the National Museum of Natural History “Naturalis”, Leiden, under accession number RMNH D 53141. Intense efforts to catch additional specimens were unsuccessful in spite of the large extent of the searches. Tomis Marina was subsequently surveyed bimonthly by one of the authors, from August 2008 to October 2009. The search was extended to the adjacent commercial harbour Constanţa-Sud Agigea and other harbours along the Romanian coast (Midia Harbour, Eforie Ma- rina, Mangalia Harbour) which were examined repeatedly over this same period. No other specimens of H. sanguineus were found.