The first record of the brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus Ives, 1891 in the central Adriatic coast of Italy

Seven specimens of the northern brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus, a western Atlantic species, were collected in December 2016 and in November 2017 by bottom trawlers off Termoli, on the central Adriatic coast of Italy. The various colonization scenarios put forward as explanations for the species' sudden, near concurrent presence in distance sites within the Mediterranean Sea and nowhere else, are discussed. The species is already established as a valuable fishery resource in southeastern Sicily, and is likely to do well in the Adriatic Sea, once its population increases.