Pedunculate Barnacle Octolasmis (Cirripedia, Thoracica) on the Gills of Two Species of Portunid Crabs

Abstract

Two species of Portunid crabs namely Portunus pelagicus and P. sanguinolentus were examined for the presence of octolasmids which belong to four species; namely Octolasmis angulata (Aurivillius, 1894), O. cor (Aurivillius, 1894), O. lowei (Darwin, 1851), and O. tridens (Aurivillius, 1894). Number of infested P. sanguinolentus was 114 (10.8% of the total P. sanguinolentus ) while total number of octolasmids hosted by these crab was 5165. The average number of octolasmids found in the right and left gill chambers was 17.74 ± 37.22 S.D and 16.26 ± 38.85 S.D respectively, which is not different significantly (t = 0.265, α = 0.05). In P. pelagicus , 188 octolasmids were found in the gill chambers of 48 infested crabs. The average number of octolasmids found in the right and left branchial chambers was 2.38 ± 3.1 S.D and 1.54 ± 2.0 S.D, respectively, which is not significantly different (t = 1.48; α = 0.05).