| Conchoderma virgatum | |
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| Illustration of Conchoderma virgatum | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Maxillopoda |
| Order: | Lepadiformes |
| Family: | Lepadidae |
| Genus: | Conchoderma |
| Species: | C. virgatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Conchoderma virgatum | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
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Conchoderma virgatum is a species of goose barnacle in the family Lepadidae. It is a pelagic species found in open water in most of the world's oceans attached to drifting objects or marine organisms.
Conchoderma virgatum has a flexible, flattened, scale-less peduncle (stalk) which is attached to a solid surface, and a capitulum (body) with five smooth, four-sided plates, widely separated from each other and not clearly demarcated from the peduncle. The total length of this goose barnacle is about 70 mm (2.8 in), half of which is the peduncle. Overall, the colour is grey, but there are some dark purplish-brown longitudinal streaks. [2]
Conchoderma virgatum has a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in all the world's oceans attached to a wide range of drifting and swimming objects, [3] as well as benthic habitats. [4]
Conchoderma virgatum is found attached to a wider range of floating objects and nekton than goose barnacles in the genus Lepas . This species seems to have evolved from the same common ancestry as Conchoderma auritum , which occurs on whales, and Alepas which occur on jellyfish. [3] Most attachments are to inanimate objects such as buoys and the hulls of ships, but it has been recorded as being attached to seaweed, crabs, sea snakes, turtles and whales, and at least thirteen species of fish. [4] Direct attachment to fish is infrequent, perhaps because of the mucus produced by the skin; in one example, four of the barnacles were attached to a single spine of a spot-fin porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix). [5] This barnacle also attaches to several species of parasitic copepods, and on one occasion was observed attached to an isopod that was parasitic on an orange filefish (Aluterus schoepfii). [4]
Like most barnacles, Conchoderma virgatum is a filter feeder. A number of modified legs known as "cirri" can be extended into the water column. These feathery appendages beat rhythmically and catch plankton and small organic particles, drawing them into the mouth. [6]
A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the infraclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile (nonmobile) and most are suspension feeders, but those in superorder Rhizocephala are parasitic. They have four nektonic larval stages. Around 1,000 barnacle species are currently known. The name "Cirripedia" is Latin, meaning "curl-footed". The study of barnacles is called cirripedology.
Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax.
Whale barnacles are species of acorn barnacle that belong to the subfamily Coronulinae, family Coronulidae. They typically attach to baleen whales, and sometimes settle on toothed whales. The whale barnacles diverged from the turtle barnacles about three million years ago.
The Cymothoidae are a family of isopods in the suborder Cymothoida and are found in both marine and freshwater environments. Cymoithoids are ectoparasites, usually of fish, and among their number they include the bizarre "tongue-biter" which attaches to a fish's tongue causing it to atrophy, and replaces the tongue with its own body. Ceratothoa oestroides is one of the most devastating ectoparasites in Mediterranean aquaculture. Around 40 genera and more than 380 species of cymothoid are recognised. Species of the Cymothoidae are generally found in warmer waters and rarely in the cool and cold climates.
Dosima fascicularis, the buoy barnacle, is "the most specialised pleustonic goose barnacle" species. It hangs downwards from the water surface, held up by a float of its own construction, and is carried along by ocean currents.
Balanus perforatus is a species of barnacle in the family Balanidae. It is found on the lower shore and in the neritic zone in the warm temperate parts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Megabalanus stultus is a species of barnacle first described by Charles Darwin in 1854. It lives on fire corals of the genus Millepora in the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to southern Brazil.
Conchoderma is a genus of goose barnacles in the family Lepadidae.
Lepas anserifera is a species of goose barnacle or stalked barnacle in the family Lepadidae. It lives attached to floating timber, ships' hulls and various sorts of flotsam.
Lepas anatifera, commonly known as the pelagic gooseneck barnacle or smooth gooseneck barnacle, is a species of barnacle in the family Lepadidae. These barnacles are found, often in large numbers, attached by their flexible stalks to floating timber, the hulls of ships, piers, pilings, seaweed and various sorts of flotsam.
Pollicipes polymerus, commonly known as the gooseneck barnacle or leaf barnacle, is a species of stalked barnacle. It is found, often in great numbers, on rocky shores on the Pacific coasts of North America.
Megabalanus tintinnabulum is a species of large barnacle in the family Balanidae. It is the type species of the genus. The specific name comes from the Latin tintinnabulum meaning a handbell and probably refers to the fact that small groups of barnacles resemble clusters of miniature bells.
Chelonibia is a genus of acorn barnacles in the monotypic family Chelonibiidae of the subphylum Crustacea. Its members are epizootic and live attached to manatees, turtles, marine molluscs, crabs and horseshoe crabs in all tropical and subtropical oceans. In a few instances, they have been found on sea snakes, alligators and inanimate substrates, but they are not found in the typical habitats of barnacles – on rocks, docks or boats.
Capitulum is a monotypic genus of sessile marine stalked barnacles. Capitulum mitella is the only species in the genus. It is commonly known as the Japanese goose barnacle or kamenote and is found on rocky shores in the Indo-Pacific region.
Alepas pacifica is a species of goose barnacle in the family Heteralepadidae. It is a pelagic species and is an obligate associate of various species of jellyfish. It mainly occurs in the Pacific Ocean.
Concavus is a genus of barnacles.
Peniculisa is a genus of marine parasitic copepods in the family Pennellidae.
Glyptelasma hamatum is a species of goose barnacle in the family Poecilasmatidae.
Heterosaccus is a genus of barnacles in superorder Rhizocephala. Like other taxa in this superorder, they parasitize crabs. Geoffroy Smith circumscribed the genus in 1906; he initially only included H. hians. Smith circumscribed a genus distinct from Sacculina due to a difference of the mesentery; in Heterosaccus, the mesentery does not stretch down to the mantle opening but rather only is present on the ring of attachment.
Pennella exocoeti is a large ectoparasitic copepod, a specialist parasite of flying fish. The adult female copepod clings to the fish's gills or skin and feeds on its body fluids.