Thecacera pennigera - a new Mediterranean exotic?

Dear Dani,

Thanks for this interesting discovery which I think is the first report of this species from the Mediterranean. A few years ago this species was reported from the tropical west African coast (Valles, Valdes & Ortea, 2000) but I know of no report of it from anywhere in the Mediterranean. Your find, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean suggests it may be a lessepsian immigrant, arriving via the Suez Canal.

On the Lessesian migration Fact Sheet I have a link to the Mediterranean Science Commission'sAtlas of Exotic Species in the Mediterranean Sea. In the past I have used this site to check earlier records of exotic opisthobranchs in the Mediterranean. Imagine my surprise when I received the following message when I tried to access it today:

"You have requested access to CIESM products that are delivered free of charge only to the Member States of our Commission that support our activities. For all other visitors like you, downloading from Australia, a participation fee (1.50 €) is applied for this product."

I thought the point of such websites was to spread information widely for the good of us all. What is particularly galling is that this site makes full use of the freely available results produced by scientists worldwide to produce their database. They have made extensive use of the Sea Slug Forum in the past and I am sure they will continue to do so. They have never asked for permission or offered to pay for this information so why should they expect me to pay to look at my own records when all I am trying to do is to further their aims. 1.50 € may seem a trifling amount so why do I complain? The whole purpose of such databases is to provide up to date information so to use them properly they need to be checked regularly - so every time I do this I will have to pay another 1.50 € and bank charges etc.  What is the point in this government body charging? It will hardly generate enough funds to buy a bureaucrat a fancy chair! Government bodies such as CIESM should be encouraging the public to support their activities - which have already been paid for by the member governments. Surely the governing committee just by looking at the contributions to their site must realise that the expertise they need is to be found all around the world, not just in their member countries. More importantly, stupid and petty imposts like this completely destroy the aim of the internet to be a means for the fast and free exchange of information worldwide.

Sorry for overloading your message with my comments on the CIESM Dani, but it means I can't be 100% sure that there is not some very recent record of T. pennigera from the Mediterranean.

• Valles, Y., Valdes, A. & Ortea, J. (2000) On the phanerobranch dorids of Angola (Mollusca, Nudibranchia): a crossroads of temperate and tropical species. Zoosystema, 22(1): 15-31.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman