Close-up of a pelagic gooseneck barnacle (Lepas sp.) on a piece of driftwood, 11 March 2024. These barnacles attach to floating materials in the open ocean.
Lepas is similar to Pollicipes polymerus, the gooseneck barnacle that lives in the rocky intertidal zone, but you can see a number of differences:
- Lepas has fewer calcareous plates.
- Lepas has a smoother stalk texture.
- Pollicipes tends to have dark pigment (red, brown, or black) at the edges of the largest plates, whereas these areas are paler in Lepas (but can be orange).
See below for a comparison!
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