First record in Mediterranean Sea and redescription of the bentho-planktonic calanoid copepod species Pseudocyclops xiphophorus Wells, 1967

The bentho-planktonic calanoid copepod Pseudocyclops xiphophorus Wells, 1967, previously recorded only in coastal waters of Mozambique, has been found in the brackish Lake Faro (eastern Sicily, central Mediterranean). The copepods were collected from fouling attached to submerged mooring posts and ropes in the Lake. Both sexes of P. xiphophorus are redescribed. This interesting zoogeographic distribution suggests that the Mozambican and Mediterranean Pseudocyclops populations exhibit a complete Tethyan pattern.