Crustacea Decapodain the sardinian channel:a checklist

This study presents a checklist of the Crustacea Decapoda that occur in the Sardinian Channel, based both on previously published records and on original data. These latter data were obtained from samples collected during different trawl surveys in the Gulf of Cagliari carried out between 1997 and 2002. The area studied comprised six sectors in all, situated between 39°13′00″N and 36°42′00″N, and 6°28′00″E to 11°02′00″E; each sector is characterized by different morphological and hydrological conditions. The species examined number 207, belonging to 55 families and 115 genera. The most abundant families in terms of numbers of genera and species were Portunidae, Inachidae, Palaemonidae, and Paguridae. Most of the species are Atlantic-Mediterranean, with only some of them assumed to be exclusively occurring in the Mediterranean, thus confirming that no Lessepsian species have been recorded in the study area until now.