barnacle

barnacle, any of more than 1,000 predominantly marine crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia highly modified for sedentary life. There are about 850 free-living species (all marine) and about 260 species that are internal parasites of crabs and other crustaceans. A brief treatment of cirripedes follows. For full treatment, see cirripede.

As adults, typical barnacles are covered with calcareous plates and are cemented, head down, to rocks, pilings, ships’ hulls, driftwood, or seaweed, or to the bodies of larger sea creatures, from clams to whales. They trap tiny particles of food by means of cirri—feathery retractile organs formed by metamorphosis of certain of their swimming legs.

Adult cirripedes commonly are simultaneous hermaphrodites (that is, individuals having both male and female reproductive organs). Hermaphroditic forms sometimes have a minute, virtually formless complemental male attached to them; in the few species with separate sexes, a similar male is attached to a much larger, fully formed female. Cross-fertilization is usual, but self-fertilization does occur. The eggs mature within the mantle cavity, and the larvae emerge as free-swimming forms called nauplii, as in many other crustacean species. In typical barnacles six naupliar stages precede formation of a cypris—a nonfeeding larval stage (see video). The cypris has a bivalved shell of chitin (a hard protein substance), cement glands on the antennules (first antennae), and a series of thoracic legs used for swimming. The cypris eventually cements itself to a hard substrate (or invades a host) and undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis.

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Typical barnacles (order Thoracica, about 800 species) have six pairs of cirri and more or less complete shells. Pedunculate (stalked) forms include the common goose barnacle (genus Lepas), found worldwide on driftwood. Acorn barnacles, also called rock barnacles, are sessile (not stalked); their symmetrical shells tend to be barrellike or broadly conical. This group includes Balanus, responsible for much of the fouling of ships and harbour structures. Wart barnacles, such as Verruca, have asymmetrical shells.

Burrowing barnacles (order Acrothoracica, about 30 species) are small, unisexual forms that lack shells and have fewer than six pairs of cirri. They burrow into hard limy material, such as clam shells and coral. Trypetesa is found only inside snail shells occupied by hermit crabs.

Parasitic cirripedes of the order Rhizocephala (about 230 species), such as Sacculina, lack appendages, shell, and gut and resemble fungi. Females parasitize decapod crustaceans (crabs and allies) by sending rootlike absorptive processes through the host’s body; this intrusion inhibits the host’s reproductive development (parasitic castration). Parasites of the order Ascothoracica, the most primitive of cirripedes, are cyprislike as adults. An example is Laura, found imbedded in cnidarians and echinoderms.