The genus Chrysallida Carpenter, 1856 on the Turkish coasts

The examination of benthic material collected from different depths and habitats along the Turkish Levantine, Aegean, and Black Sea coasts between the years 1996 and 2010 revealed 19 species of Chrysallida Carpenter, 1856. Among them, Chrysallida palazzii Micali, 1984 is new to the Levantine Sea and Turkish mollusc fauna. C. terebellum (Philippi, 1844) is new to the Turkish Levantine, Aegean and Black Sea coasts, C. dollfusi (Kobelt, 1903) is new to the Turkish Levantine coast, 7 species [C. decussata (Montagu, 1803), C. flexuosa (Monterosato, 1874), C. incerta (Milaschewitsch, 1916), C. indistincta (Montagu, 1808), C. intermixta (Monterosato, 1884), C. jeffreysiana (Monterosato, 1874), and C. suturalis (Philippi, 1844)] are new reports for the Turkish Aegean coast, and C. fenestrata (Jeffreys, 1848) is new for the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. Two species [C. maiae (Hornung & Mermod, 1924) and C. micronana Ozturk & Aartsen, 2006] are alien species that entered the Mediterranean in last three decades. The identified species, apart from C. obtusa (Brown, 1827) and C. flexuosa, were found to be distributed at depth ranges from 0 to 100 m. The last two species were from deeper waters. C. obtusa was found to have a wide depth range from 5 m to 875 m, whereas C. flexuosa was significant as the deepest species, found at 875 m. Some ecological characteristics and taxonomic remarks, with distribution features of the identified species along the Turkish coasts, are also provided.