Inventory of Crustacea Decapoda and Stomatopoda from Rhodes island (Eastern Mediterranean Sea), with emphasis on rare and newly recorded species

The list of decapod and stomatopod crustacean fauna of Rhodes island (SE Aegean Sea, Eastern Mediterranean Sea) is updated, with the addition of 14 decapods and one stomatopod collected during the last six years. The occurrence of the pelagic crab Planes minutus is recorded for the first time in the Hellenic waters, while the finding of the species Parasquilla ferussaci, Paractaea monodi, Paragalene longicrura and Spinolambrus macrochelos, rarely captured in the Mediterranean Sea, is documented in detail, with notes on their geographical distribution. The crustaceans recorded around the island number today 109 decapod and 4 stomatopod species. About 16\% of them is composed of alien species, mostly entered the South Aegean during the last two decades. A comparison between the decapod fauna of Rhodes and neighboring areas is also presented.