Identification Photos: Striped Gooseneck Barnacle, Conchoderma virgatum: The Striped Gooseneck Barnacle is a member of Lepadidae family. Barnacles are sedentary crustacean animals found exclusively in salt water and are quite unlike any other crustacean because they permanently attach, or sessile, themselves to a host.

Attachment is made by means of a very adhesive cement-like substance, produced by a "cement" gland, and secretion of a shell, or carapace, of calcareous (limestone) plates. Gooseneck barnacles have a calcareous shell, which is attached to the substrate by means of a stalk, or peduncle.

The stalk of the gooseneck barnacle is simply an elongation of the end of the animal's body.

The Striped Gooseneck Barnacle is a pelagic species found in all tropical waters of the world, being more abundant closer to the equator (pan-tropical).

It is found attached to all larger forms of marine life including Green Turtles, Loggerhead Turtles, Sea Snakes, Ocean Sunfish, Swordfish, Humpback Whales, Leatherback Whales, and Sperm Whales.

The Striped Gooseneck Barnacle also attaches itselv to oceanic buoys and is well-known for fouling ships and offshore structures globally.

It may travel the globe attached to a host in a commensal arrangement of living and feeding together.

Striped Gooseneck Barnacle, Conchoderma virgatum: The strange assortment of creatures presented above were collected as passengers traveling with a Striped Marlin caught in October 2005. The Gooseneck Barnacle has attached itself to an unknown host. Identification courtesy of Dr. Milton Love, UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Love points out that the pointed end of the host is the head which was buried in the flesh of the marlin. The long antenna and the brush-like tail of the host are noteworthy. Also pictured are several of one of the 5,000 yet to be identified cocepods that inhabit the ocean that are the mainstay of the nutritional food chain of marine life. The pictured cocepod is most likely a form of parasitic copepod crustacean from the Penneliidae Family. The scale above is in centimeters. Description and photo courtesy of John Snow.