First report of marine barnacles Lepas anatifera and Chelonibia testudinaria as epibionts on American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus).

Armando H. Escobedo-Galvan

Abstract - Chelonibia testudinaria (Sea Turtle Barnacle) and other closely related barnacle species of the genus Chelonibia are known to utilize a variety of organisms for their attachment substrate. These include the calcifi ed exoskeleton of marine crustaceans and chelicerids, the epidermis of manatees, and the carapace regions of all extant sea turtle species. Here, we present the fi rst records of an Alligator mississippiensis (American Alligator; Alligatoridae) as a host for C. testudinaria.

Loggerhead and green turtles inhabit all oceans except the polar regions. External surfaces of sea turtles are often colonized by epibiotic chelonibiid barnacles. Barnacle taxonomy studies in Korea began in 1985, but until present, no turtle barnacles were recorded. This suggests that either the diversity and frequency of occurrence of turtle barnacles in Korean waters are low or the turtle barnacles have been understudied. This study complies with data collected over 6 years of sea turtle stranding events in Korea (2015–2020). We examined the diversity, frequency, and intensity of turtle barnacle occurrence. Of the 55 recorded strandings, loggerhead turtles were the most common (58%), followed by green turtles (33%). Only one species of barnacle, Chelonibia testudinaria, was found on both loggerhead and green turtles. The frequency of barnacle occurrence on loggerhead turtles was 28%, with an intensity of 2.4 ± 2.7 barnacles per turtle. Notably, 11% of green turtles had barnacles, ...

Barnacle is an arthropod belonging to the subphylum Crustacea and infraclass Cirripedia so is related to crabs and lobsters. They are marine and dwell in shallow and tidal waters with erosive settings. They are sessile suspension feeders with two nektonic larval stages in their life history. About 1,220 species of barnacles are known. The name Cirripedia comes from a Latin word meaning curl footed. They tend to attach permanently to any hard substrate. The most common known barnacles are acorn barnacles which attach their shells directly to any submerged hard substrate available. The goose barnacles attach themselves to any substrate by means of their stalks. They remain confined within their shells which are made up of six plates and reach the water column by their modified legs. These feathery modified legs beat rhythmically in order to drive the plankton and other detritus towards the shell for feeding. Other members of this infraclass have adapted different modes of life. Sacculina is completely parasitic inhabiting within crabs.

Herpetology Notes, volume 4: 213-214 (2011) (published online on 27 May 2011) First report of the marine barnacles Lepas anatifera and Chelonibia testudinaria as epibionts on American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña1*, Armando Rubio-Delgado2, Armando H. Escobedo-Galván3 and Carolina Reyes-Núñez4 The most common epibionts of crocodiles are ticks, leeches (Huchzermeyer, 2003), and rarely barnacles (Monroe and Garrett, 1979). However, there is a lack of information regarding epibionts on American crocodile, Crocodylus acutus (Cuvier, 1807). Cupul-Magaña and Cortés-Lara (2005) recorded the presence of four diatom genera (Amphora, Cymbella, Navicula, and Nitzschia), a blue-green algae (Trichodesmium sp.), and colonies of protozoans (Epistylis sp.) attached to the belly of juveniles of American crocodile in a Mexican freshwater coastal lagoon. In November 2008, a 1.7 meter American crocodile (male) was captured by the Naval Authorities in Puerto Vallarta harbor, a city on the Central Pacific coast of Mexico. A physical examination of each body region of the crocodile revealed the presence of two types of barnacles attached to the jaws and tail. According to Morris, Abbot and Haderlie (1980), we identified 21 pelagic goosneck barnacles, Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1758, and 68 non-stalked barnacles, Chelonibia testudinaria (Linnaeus, 1758). The pelagic gooseneck barnacles were observed mainly on the base of the teeth in the lower jaw and on the single dorsal row of scales of the tail (Fig. 1). The non-stalked barnacles were located on both sides of the posterior section of the tail, and some isolated 1 Centro Universitario de la Costa. Universidad de Guadalajara. Av. Universidad de Guadalajara No. 203, Delegación Ixtapa, C.P. 48280. Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México; e-mail: fabio_cupul@yahoo.com.mx 2 Unidad de Manejo Ambiental Acuetzpallin. Clave: SEMARNAT-UMA-EA-OO35-JAL. Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México; 3 Laboratorio de Análisis Espaciales, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. México D.F., México; 4 Proyecto para la Conservación, Manejo y Aprovechamiento Sustentable de los Crocodylia en México. Región Pacífico Norte. Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México. * Corresponding author. individuals observed on the nuchal region and on the dorsal part of the base of the tail (Fig. 2). Both species of cirripedian crustaceans live in tropical and subtropical oceans (Patel, 1959; Morris, Abbot and Haderlie, 1980). They are prominent and conspicuous members of the marine turtles´ fouling or epibiont community (Hernández-Vázquez and ValadezGonzález, 1998; Rawson et al, 2003; Gámez-Vivaldo et al, 2006), but this is the first time they have been recorded as American crocodile epibionts. These crustaceans adhere themselves to floating objects and marine organisms with typically slow motility or organisms which spend much of their time resting (Morris, Abbot and Haderlie, 1980; Fraser, Nikula and Waters, 2011). The barnacle species growing on rafts, in flowing channels, or in the shallow sublittoral zone have the highest growth rates (Crisp and Bourget, 1985). The limited information available on the growth rates of lepadomorphs (like L. anatifera) indicates fast growth despite alleged scarcity of plankton at the water surface of oceans (Crisp and Bourget, 1985). Evans (1958) reported that Lepas species reach maturity at a capitulum length between 17 to 19.5 mm and grow 0.5 mm per day in the first month of life. The specimens of L. anatifera attached to the American crocodile specimen showed lengths between 2.39-3.87 mm, indicating their estimated age of ca. 4-8 days. With this information, we concluded that the specimens of L. anatifera settled on the crocodile approximately one week before its capture, therefore, this is the minimum amount of time the crocodile must have spent in an environment with oceanic conditions that allowed the development of these pelagic gooseneck barnacles. Acknowledgements. We are grateful to Luis Sigler, The Dallas World Aquarium, for provided pre-submission review, Minerva Zamora for their suggestions to the manuscript, Maria Zamora and Rafael García de Quevedo for providing specialized literature, Leslie Solis and Eva Torres for help in the fieldwork. 214 Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña et al. Figure 1. Lower jaw of an American crocodile specimen, showing the pelagic gooseneck barnacles (black arrows). F. C. Reyes. Figure 2. Posterior section of the tail of the same american crocodile, showing the pelagic gooseneck (black arrows) and non-stalked barnacles (white arrows). F. C. Reyes. References Hernández-Vázquez, S., Valadez-González, C. (1998): Observaciones de los epizoarios encontrados sobre la tortuga golfina Lepidochelys olivacea en La Gloria, Jalisco, México. Cienc. Mar. 24(1): 119-125. Huchzermeyer, F.W. (2003): Crocodiles. Biology, husbandry and diseases. Wallingford, CABI Publishing. Monroe, R., Garrett, R. (1979): Chelonibia testudinaria (L.) (Cirripedia, Coronulidae) on Crocodylus porosus Schneider, a new host record. Crustaceana 36: 108. Morris, R.H., Abbot, D.P., Haderlie, E.C. (1980): Intertidal invertebrates of California. Stanford, Stanford University Press. Patel, B. (1959): The influence of temperature on the reproduction and moulting of Lepas anatifera L. under laboratory conditions. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K. 38: 589-597. Rawson, P.D., Macnamee, R., Frick, M.G., Williams, K.L. (2003): Phylogeography of the coronulid barnacle, Chelonibia testudinaria, from loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta. Mol. Ecol. 12(10): 2697-2706. Crisp, D.J., Bourget, E. (1985): Growth in barnacles. Adv. Mar. Biol. 22: 199-224. Cupul-Magaña, F.G., Cortés-Lara, M.C. (2005): primer registro de epibiontes en ejemplares juveniles de crocodylus acutus en el medio silvestre. Caldasia 27(1): 147-149. Evans, F. (1958): Growth and maturity of the barnacles Lepas hillii and Lepas anatifera. Nature 4644: 1245-1246. Fraser, C.I., Nikula, R., Waters, J.M. (2011): Oceanic rafting by a coastal community. Proc. R. Soc. B. 278: 649-655. Gámez-Vivaldo, S., Osorio-Sarabia, D., Peñaflores-Salazar, C., García Hernández, A., Ramírez Lezama, J. (2006): Identification of parasites and epibionts in the Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) that arrived to the beaches of Michoacan and Oaxaca, Mexico. Vet. Méx. 37: 431-440. Accepted by Zoltán T. Nagy

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First report of marine barnacles Lepas anatifera and Chelonibia testudinaria as epibionts on American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus).

First report of marine barnacles Lepas anatifera and Chelonibia testudinaria as epibionts on American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus).

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