Whale barnacle
Coronulidae | |
---|---|
Cryptolepas rhachianecti on a grey whale | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Subphylum: | Crustacea |
Class: | Maxillopoda |
Subclass: | Cirripedia |
Order: | Sessilia |
Suborder: | Balanomorpha |
Superfamily: | Coronuloidea |
Family: | Coronulidae Leach, 1817 [1] |
Genera [2] | |
|
Whale barnacles are barnacles belonging to the family Coronulidae. Whale barnacles attach themselves to the bodies of baleen whales during the barnacles' free-swimming larval stage. Though often described as parasites, the relationship is an example of obligate commensalism, as the barnacles neither harm, nor benefit, their host.[3] A number of taxa formerly treated as subfamilies of Corolunidae are now considered separate families in their own right, including the turtle barnacles in the family Chelonibiidae.[4]
References
- ↑ Benny K. K. Chan (2012). "Coronulidae". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
- ↑ ITIS
- ↑ Yasuyuki Nogata & Kiyotaka Matsumura (2006). "Larval development and settlement of a whale barnacle". Biology Letters 2 (1): 92–93. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2005.0409. PMC 1617185. PMID 17148335.
- ↑ Ryota Hayashi (2012). "Atlas of the barnacles on marine vertebrates in Japanese waters including taxonomic review of superfamily Coronuloidea (Cirripedia: Thoracica)". Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 92 (1): 107–127. doi:10.1017/S0025315411000737.
External links
- Data related to Coronulidae at Wikispecies
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