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- Title
Two Previously Unreported Barnacles Commensal with the Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia Mydas (Linnaeus, 1758), in Hawaii and a Comparison of their Attachment Modes.
- Authors
Zardus, John D.; Balazs, George H.
- Abstract
Two species of barnacles found living in the skin of green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, and not previously recorded in Hawaii are reported and their attachment mechanisms compared. These findings bring to five the total number of barnacles commensal with Hawaiian sea turtles and to 50 the number of shallow-water cirripedes known in Hawaii. Identified as Stomatolepas elegans and Platylepas decorata, both species live embedded in the soft skin of the limbs, neck, and tail of their host. Stomatolepas elegans is perhaps a recent arrival in Hawaii with this being the first report of it, or any member of the genus, occurring with hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata. We found the barnacle embeds by penetrating the epidermis of sea turtles and then anchors in connective tissue of the dermis by way of small spikes extending from the shell. Conversely, P. decorata invades host tissue less deeply, lacks anchoring devices, and becomes encapsulated only by epidermis. Species diagnoses were made by light and scanning electron microscopy and by comparison with other members in each genus.
- Subjects
HAWAII; BARNACLES; SEA turtles; SCANNING electron microscopy; HAWKSBILL turtle; CRUSTACEA; MARINE organisms
- Publication
Crustaceana, 2007, Vol 80, Issue 11, p1303
- ISSN
0011-216X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/156854007782605547