Invasive vermigon stage in the parasitic barnacles Loxothylacus texanus and L. panopaei (Sacculinidae): Closing of the rhizocephalan life-cycle

Abstract

The parasitic barnacles, Rhizocephala, are unique in Crustacea by having an entirely endo-parasitic phase inserted into their lifecycle. A cypris larva, remarkably similar to the cypris of conventional acron and goose barnacles (Thoracica), settles on the crustacean host and develops an infective stage, the kentrogon, underneath the exuviae of the cypris.