Alien facelinid nudibranchs in the Eastern Mediterranean: First report of Phidiana militaris (Alder and Hancock, 1864) and report of Caloria indica (Bergh, 1896) 30 years after its previous sighting

Two conspicuously-colored facelinid nudibranchs, wide spread in the Indo-West Pacific Ocean, were recently sighted off the Israeli Mediterranean coastline. We report the occurrence of Phidiana militaris (Alder and Hancock, 1864) off a sunken submarine in Haifa Bay – the first record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. A recent sighting of Caloria indica (Bergh, 1896) off northern Israel, previously known from two individuals recorded in the late 1980s, may indicate a separate introduction or the spread of a cryptic, local, self-propagating population.