Validation and redescription of the hyperiidean amphipod Brachyscelus rapacoides Stephensen, 1925 (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Hyperiidea: Brachyscelidae), a new record of association with the scyphozoan jellyfish Rhopilema nomadica Galil, 1990 (Scyphozoa: Rhizostomeae: Rhizostomatidae) in the Mediterranean Sea.

The hyperiidean amphipod Brachyscelus rapacoides Stephensen, 1925 is recorded from the scyphozoan jellyfish Rhopilema nomadica Galil, 1990, a new record of association for the genus Brachyscelus, as well as the first record of hyperiid infestation of a non-indigenous scyphozoan host. Because of some past confusion concerning the status of B. rapacoides and the closely related species B. rapax (Claus, 1871) a redescription of B. rapacoides and molecular analysis are provided in order to validate it as a species distinguished from B. rapax.

The resurrection of Charybdis (Gonioinfradens) giardi (Nobili, 1905), newly recorded from the SE Mediterranean Sea.

A single adult specimen of Gonioinfradens giardi, a portunid crab known from the Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Gulf, was recently collected off the southern Israeli coast, in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea. Morphological characters, as well as molecular analyses based on the mitochondrial barcoding gene cytochrome oxidase sub unit I (COI), support its distinction from the widely distributed G. paucidentata. Therefore, G. giardi is reinstated as a valid species, and withdrawn from its synonymy with G. paucidentata. Previous Mediterranean records of the latter species are misidentifications and should be referred to G. giardi. The species is described, illustrated, and differentiated from its cogener.