Chthamalus stellatus

Chthamalus stellatus, common name Poli's stellate barnacle, is a species of acorn barnacle common on rocky shores in South West England, Ireland, and Southern Europe.[1][2] It is named after Giuseppe Saverio Poli.[3]

Chthamalus stellatus
A colony of C. stellatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Subphylum:
Crustacea
Class:
Hexanauplia
Subclass:
Cirripedia
Order:
Sessilia
Family:
Chthamalidae
Genus:
Chthamalus
Species:
C. stellatus
Binomial name
Chthamalus stellatus
(Poli, 1791)

Description

C. stellatus is a sessile barnacle that attaches to rocks and other firm materials in the intertidal zone using its membranous base. It is basically cone-shaped but can assume a more tubular shape in a crowded colony. Like other sessile barnacles, as an adult C. stellatus is a suspension feeder that stays in its fixed shell and uses its feathery, rhythmically beating appendages – actually modified legs – to draw plankton and detritus into its shell for consumption.[4]

The chalky white shell of C. stellatus has a kite-shaped opercular opening when it is a juvenile and an oval operculum opening when it is an adult. The shell is made up of six solid wall plates of approximately equal size. Its relatively narrow rostral plates remain separate from its rostrolateral plates and do not fuse. C. stellatus has bright blue tissue with black and orange markings which can be seen when its opercular aperture is not tightly closed. Depending upon environmental conditions and the amount of food available, it can reach up to 14 millimetres (0.55 in) in diameter.[4]

Reproduction

Like most barnacles, C. stellatus is hermaphroditic and capable of self-fertilisation when isolated, but individuals typically take on either a male or female role in order to mate. Their penises are significantly longer than their bodies and are used by the stationary "functional males" to search the area for an equally stationary "functional female" neighbour to fertilise.[5]

Barnacles of this species produce about 1,000 to 4,000 eggs per brood when functioning as female.[5] The fertilised eggs remain inside the shell of the adult until they are released as nauplii, free swimming larvae which float on currents along with other plankton. After several moults they metamorphose into a cyprid, a stage at which they cannot feed. The cyprid swims in search of a suitable surface on which to attach itself, head first, in order to metamorphose into the familiar, hard-shelled, immobile form.[4][6] The duration of its breeding season can be temperature dependent, and it produces fewer broods near the northern limit of its range.[7]

Habitat and range

C. stellatus attaches to exposed rocky shores in the mid to low eulittoral zone in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. It especially favours islands and headlands as opposed to bays and more protected areas.[8] It is a southern, warm-water species but has been discovered as far north as Shetland and as far east as the Isle of Wight.[4]

The vertical distribution of C. stellatus overlaps with Chthamalus montagui (considered the same species as C. stellatus until 1976)[5] and Semibalanus balanoides with the specific prevalence of one species over another in a given locale possibly related to differences in the distribution of the species' larval stages.[1][8]

gollark: Sure. That doesn't mean people know all the causes.
gollark: I don't think it's known at this time. Lingering organ damage, virus sticking around somehow, same sort of thing as "post-viral fatigue" (something something immune system), maybe.
gollark: People have looked into it. It apparently exists. I'm not sure what you want them to do.
gollark: There are a bunch of worrying weird neurological ones.
gollark: But they could just add s and it would be fine.

References
  1. P. M. Ross; M. T. Burrows; S. J. Hawkins; A. J. Southward; K. P. Ryan (2003). "A key for the identification of the nauplii of common barnacles of the British Isles, with emphasis on Chthamalus" (PDF). Journal of Crustacean Biology. 23 (2): 328–340. doi:10.1651/0278-0372(2003)023[0328:AKFTIO]2.0.CO;2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
  2. J. Davenport; S. Irwin (2003). "Hypoxic life of intertidal acorn barnacles" (PDF). Marine Biology. 143 (3): 555–563. doi:10.1007/s00227-003-1057-0.
  3. "Chthamalus stellatus". Environmental database on the Lagoon of Venice. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Archived from the original on 6 October 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  4. Karen Riley (2002). "Chthamalus stellatus (Poli's stellate barnacle)". Marine Life Information Network. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  5. Karen Riley (2002). "Chthamalus stellatus (Poli's stellate barnacle) — reproduction and longevity". Marine Life Information Network. Archived from the original on 2008-10-19. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  6. "Barnacles". PZNOW. Archived from the original on 19 August 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  7. "The influence of climate on intertidal reef biotopes". UK Marine SACs project. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  8. M. T. Burrows; S. J. Hawkins; A. J. Southward (1999). "Larval development of the intertidal barnacles Chthamalus stellatus and Chthamalus montagui" (PDF). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 79 (1): 93–101. doi:10.1017/S0025315498000101.
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