title: Ascidiacea (Chordata: Tunicata) of Greece: an updated checklist.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The checklist of the ascidian fauna (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) of Greece was compiled within the framework of the Greek Taxon Information System (GTIS), an application of the LifeWatchGreece Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) aiming to produce a complete checklist of species recorded from Greece. This checklist was constructed by updating an existing one with the inclusion of recently published records. All the reported species from Greek waters were taxonomically revised and cross-checked with the Ascidiacea World Database.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The updated checklist of the class Ascidiacea of Greece comprises 75 species, classified in 33 genera, 12 families, and 3 orders. In total, 8 species have been added to the previous species list (4 Aplousobranchia, 2 Phlebobranchia, and 2 Stolidobranchia). Aplousobranchia was the most speciose order, followed by Stolidobranchia. Most species belonged to the families Didemnidae, Polyclinidae, Pyuridae, Ascidiidae, and Styelidae; these 4 families comprise 76% of the Greek ascidian species richness. The present effort revealed the limited taxonomic research effort devoted to the ascidian fauna of Greece, which is attributed to the lack of experts and low sampling effort. Therefore, major knowledge gaps on the ascidian diversity of Greece occur and further research in this field is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Chryssanthi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Antoniadou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Vasilis
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gerovasileiou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bailly
keywords:  Aplousobranchia ;  Phlebobranchia ;  Stolidobranchia ; Aegean Sea; Ionian Sea; Levantine Sea; Sea-squirts; eastern Mediterranean