Occurrence of Pterois miles in the Island of Kefalonia (Greece): the Northernmost Dispersal Record in the Mediterranean Sea

Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) is one of the worst aquatic invaders in history and its rapid dispersal in the Mediterranean Sea raise serious concerns for local biomes. On April 2019, one adult specimen was caught by gillnets close to the shoreline of the island of Kefalonia, Greece. This occurrence, confirmed by DNA barcoding, represents the northernmost record of the species in the Mediterranean Sea, up today, suggesting that the Ionian Sea corridor facilitates fast dispersal of ecological versatile species such as P. miles to higher latitudes.