Barnacles pretending to be nudibranchs?
Description: The picture is of an acorn barnacle (''Megabalanus californicus'') from Santa Barbara, CA. Is it mimicking a nudibranch? The blue and orange tissue resembles a nudibranch in size and shape and it matches the coloration of certain species. Further, when feeding, the barnacle's cirri resemble a dorid's gills. I know this hypothesis is a reach, but why would a barnacle have such conspicuous coloration? I'd like to hear some ideas.
Page creator's name: Dan Speiser
Page creator's contact info: dispeiser@gmail.com
barnacle biology color mimicry nudibranch predation
Created: 07 Oct 2014 03:45
Updated: 06 Jan 2015 21:37
Comments: 09 Oct 2014 18:26
#Comments: 1
That's a really beautiful picture! And it does look strikingly like a nudibranch.
Mimicry does seem plausible to me. But I also got to wondering: is drab coloration the default? There are some examples of strong pigmentation (e.g. vertebrate blood) or iridescence (e.g. ctenophore comb rows) in which interaction with light is not obviously significant to function. But then, cave animals tend to be drab (as far as I know), and things seem much less colorful in the North Carolina intertidal than on the west coast.