Epibiont Research Cooperative (ERC), 2007:

"Twenty-nine nominal species of 'turtle barnacles' are presently recognised. These are unequally distributed between the balanomorph families Chelonibiidae and Platylepadidae. Not all occur on turtles however. Some are found only on mollusks, decapod crustaceans, stomatopods, xiphosurans, gars, sea snakes, crocodiles, dugongs and manatees or several related groups of these organisms (Darwin 1854; Pilsbry 1916; Ross and Newman 1967; Newman and Ross 1976; Monroe and Limpus 1979). The record of a whale barnacle by Caldwell (1963), Coronula regina Darwin, on a Pacific loggerhead from the Gulf of California, Mexico is likely a misidentification of C. testudinaria as contemporary analyses of barnacles from turtles in this region have never found C. reginae; however, this species is common from whales encountered here. The following are those known to occur only on turtles:

• Chelolepas cheloniae (Monroe & Limpus, 1979)
• Chelonibia caretta (Spengler, 1790)
• Chelonibia manati lobatibasis (Pilsbry, 1916+)
• Chelonibia ramosa (Korschelt, 1933)
• Chelonibia testudinaria (Linnaeus, 1758)
• Cylindrolepas darwiniana (Pilsbry, 1916)
• Cylindrolepas sinica (Ren, 1980)
• Platylepas coriacea (Monroe and Limpus, 1979)
• Platylepas decorata (Darwin, 1854)
• Platylepas sp. (sensu Young 1991) (Figure 4 C,D)
• Stomatolepas dermochelys (Monroe and Limpus, 1979)
• Stomatolepas elegans (Costa, 1838)
• Stomatolepas praegustator (Pilsbry, 1910)
• Stomatolepas pulchra (Ren, 1980)
• Stomatolepas transversa (Nilsson-Cantell, 1930)
• Stephanolepas muricata (Fischer, 1886)

With the exception of Chelonibia patula, Platylepas hexastylos hexastylos and Platylepas hexastylos ichthyophila, the following occur on living organisms other than sea turtles. Chelonibia patula has also been found on inanimate floating objects (Relini 1980; Frazier and Margaritoulis 1990) as well as a human femur (Monroe 1981). This species, along with P. hexastylos hexastylos and P. hexastylos ichthyophila, are also found on turtles, but the latter subspecies has only been reported once from green turtles in Brazil (Young, 1991). 

• Chelonibia dentata (Henry 1943) (decapod crustaceans)
• Chelonibia manati (Gruvel, 1903) (manatees)
• Chelonibia patula (Ranzani, 1820) (crabs, mollusks, stomatopods, etc.)
• Platylepas hexastylos hexastylos (Fabricius, 1798) (dugongs)
• Platylepas hexastylos ichthyophila (Pilsbry, 1916) (fish)
• Platylepas indicus (Daniel, 1958) (sea snakes)
• Platylepas krugeri (Pilsbry, 1916) (sea snakes)
• Platylepas ophiophilus (Lanchester, 1902) (sea snakes)"

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Citation and/or URL

Epibiont Research Cooperative (ERC) 2007, A synopsis of the literature on the turtle barnacles (Cirripedia: Balanomorpha: Coronuloidea) 1758-2007, Special Publication (Epibiont Research Cooperative ): ERC-SP1 

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