Thompsonia (barnacle)

Thompsonia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Maxillopoda
Infraclass: Cirripedia
Superorder: Rhizocephala
Order: Akentrogonida
Family: Thompsoniidae
Genus: Thompsonia
Kossmann, 1872
Type species
Thompsonia globosa
Kossmann, 1872

Thompsonia is a genus of barnacles which has evolved into an endoparasite of other crustaceans, including crabs and snapping shrimp.[1] It spreads through the host's body as a network of threads, and produces many egg capsules which emerge through joints in the host's shell.[2]

Taxonomic history

The first scientific description of the genus was Robby Kossmann's description in 1872 of Thompsonia globosa.[3][4] Kossmann named the genus after William Thompson, the Irish naturalist who had recognised the cirripedian affinities of the Rhizocephala.[3] The type specimens had been collected by Georg Semper in the East Indies, on the legs of the crab Lybia tessellata.[3] Eleven species are now recognised:[5]

References

  1. ↑ J. T. Høeg & A. J. Bruce (1988). "Thompsonia luetzeni, new species (Cirripedia: Rhizocephala), a solitary parasite from the alpheid shrimp Alpheus parvirostris". Bulletin of Marine Science 42 (2): 246–252.
  2. ↑ Donald Thomas Anderson (1994). "Modes of life: phylogeny". Barnacles: Structure, Function, Development and Evolution. Springer. pp. 287–330. ISBN 978-0-412-44420-3.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 F. A. Potts (1915). "On the Rhizocephalan genus Thompsonia and its relation to the evolution of the group". Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 212: 1–32.
  4. ↑ Jens T. Høeg & Jørgen Lützen (1993). "Comparative morphology and phylogeny of the family Thompsoniidae (Cirripedia, Rhizocephala, Akentrogonida), with descriptions of three new genera and seven new species". Zoologica Scripta 22 (4): 363–386. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.1993.tb00365.x.
  5. ↑ Christopher Boyko (2012). M. Schotte, C. B. Boyko, N. L. Bruce, G. C. B. Poore, S. Taiti & G. D. F. Wilson, ed. "Thompsonia Häfele, 1911". World Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial Isopod Crustaceans database. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved October 25, 2012.

Further reading