Confirming predictions: the invasive isopod Ianiropsis serricaudis Gurjanova, 1936 (Crustacea: Peracarida) is abundant in the Lagoon of Venice (Italy)

Ianiropsis (G.O. Sars, 1897-99) is a complex and poorly understood genus composed of species similar to one another (BRUSCA & IVERSON, 1985), as well as similar to Janira (Leach, 1814). Species within this genus are mainly indigenous in the Pacific Ocean, apart from Ianiropsis breviremis (G.O. Sars, 1883), which occurs in the North-East Atlantic, and Ianiropsis palpalis (Barnard, 1914) on the South African coast. Recently, the species Ianiropsis serricaudis (Gurjanova, 1936) was identified in North America, on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and in Europe, so far only reported from England and the Netherlands (HOBBS et al. 2015 and references therein). The authors predicted that the species is probably more widespread than previously reported along North American and European coasts. This work confirms their hypothesis, providing evidence of the presence of I. serricaudis in an Adriatic lagoon.