Barnacles and Relatives: Thecostraca - Physical Characteristics, Habitat, Behavior And Reproduction, Barnacles, Their Relatives, And People, No Common Name (trypetesa Lampas): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, DIET, CONSERVATION STATUS
eat floating animals
Barnacles and their relatives are found worldwide in oceans and estuaries (EHS-chew-AIR-eez), where rivers meet the sea.
Most barnacles eat algae (AL-jee), bacteria, tiny animals, and bits of other organisms floating in the surrounding water. Some stalked species prey on larger floating animals by capturing them with a single limb, or cirrus (SIH-ruhs). Parasitic thecostracans eat the tissues and fluids of their hosts.
Two species of thecostracans—barnacles Armatobalanus nefrens and Balanus aquila—are listed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as Data Deficient. This means there is not enough information to make a judgment about their threat of extinction.
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Adult barnacles and their relatives have very unusual bodies compared to other crustaceans. In fact, it is only during the free-swimming larval stages that most species are recognizable as crustaceans at all. The first pair of antennae, or antennules (an-TEN-yuls), of the larvae (LAR-vee) is used for grasping. They help the larvae, or young animals, to attach themselves to a host animal or object,…
Most barnacles and their relatives can move about freely while they are larvae. Some ascothoracids still have the ability to swim as adults, attaching themselves to objects only temporarily when they are ready to feed. They attach themselves by the front of their heads using glue that comes from special glands in their antennules. At low tide, barnacles on rocky shores survive out of water by seal…
Native Americans once ate barnacles. Today, the rock barnacle is popular as seafood in parts of South America. Many other barnacles are considered pests. When attached to the bottoms of ships, barnacles can slow their speed by more than one-third. This increases the amount of fuel needed to get from place to place. Much time, money, and effort has been spent on the development of paints that will …
Physical characteristics: Trypetesa lampas (abbreviated T. lampas) does not have a hard carapace. Females reach 0.78 inches (20 millimeters) in length. Their body is clear or yellowish and covered by a large, folded carapace. There is one pair of small cirri near the mouth and three uniramous (YU-neh-RAY-mus), or unbranched, pairs on the thorax. The tiny, bottle-shaped males have antennae and no o…
Physical characteristics: Rock barnacles measure 0.19 to 0.59 inches (5 to15 millimeters) across. The shell is made up of six gray or white plates that are fused together. Two of the plates form a cover that opens and closes. Through this opening six pairs of biramous (BY-ray-mus), or branched, cirri fan out into the water or can be safely withdrawn inside. Tissue inside this opening is white or p…
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