Class Maxillopoda Order Sessilia | Subphylum Crustacea Infraclass Cirripedia Superfamily Chthamaloidea Rank Genus | |
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Similar Perumytilus purpuratus, Austromegabalanus, Chthamalus, Balanus glandula, Semimytilus algosus | ||
Notochthamalus scabrosus, the only species in the genus Notochthamalus, is a species of barnacle found along the south-western and south-eastern coasts of South America, from Peru to the Falkland Islands. The species is found almost exclusively higher in the intertidal zone than the mussel Perumytilus, often codistributed with the confamilial barnacle Chthamalus cirratus and Balanus flosculus.
Contents
Diagnosis and Discussion
Notochthamalus is composed of 6 compartmental plates, composed of a carina, rostrum, and paired carinolatera and rostrolatera. Sutures between plates made up of poorly developed oblique folded laminae with membraneous basis. Plates are colored dull purplish brown, weathering to gray. Free-growing shellis are conic, crowded colonies become cylindrical, with plate sutures obscured. Opercular plates are narrow and deeply interlocked. The interior of the tergum shows a tergal depressor muscle pit with overhang and no crests, or only relics thereof. Neither shell nor opercular plates show secondary fusion with age.
Notochthamalus
Notochthamalus scabrosus
Geographic Range and Habitat
Notochthamalus scabrosus prefers exposed upper littoral habitats, and can be found on the South American coastline from Peru through Chile, Chiloe Archipelago, and Tierra del Fuego. It co-occurs there with Chthamalus cirratus. In the Atlantic Ocean, it is very common on the Falkland Islands.468