Abstract
The present study is the first completed and taxonomically validated literature review of the biodiversity of barnacles (Cirripedia) in India. A total of 144 species in 75 genera and 19 families have been recorded in India. The highest number of species has been recorded from the Bay of Bengal province, located on the eastern side of the Indian Peninsula, comprising the Eastern India ecoregion (76 species) and Northern Bay of Bengal ecoregion (34 species). The West and South India Shelf province has fewer species (Western India ecoregion: 29 species; South India and Sri Lanka ecoregion: 40 species; and Maldives ecoregion: 10 species) compared to the Bay of Bengal province. The Andaman province is composed of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and contains 65 species. Most of the coral-associated barnacles (family Pyrgomatidae) have been recorded in the corals reefs of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (7 species), Eastern India (6 species), and Northern Bay of Bengal ecoregions (5 species). Sponge-associated barnacles (mostly in the subfamily Acastinae) were recorded in the Eastern India ecoregion, Southern India and Sri Lanka, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands ecoregions. Deepwater species were recorded the most extensively in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ecoregion (21 species), followed by the South India and Sri Lanka ecoregion (9 species) and Eastern India ecoregion (7 species). Six Atlantic/boreal cold water species previously reported in India were removed due to incorrect identification, and some incorrectly identified species were validated and corrected.
Highlights
India is one of the 12 mega-biodiversity countries and has 25 biodiversity hotspots, containing a considerable number of endangered species (Myers et al, 2000; Venkataraman and Wafar, 2005; Venkataraman and Raghunathan, 2015)
A total of 155 barnacle species belonging to 75 genera and 19 families were reported from India (Supplementary Appendix Table 1)
Tetraclita squamosa, which has green shells, is only recorded in the mid intertidal shore of the Eastern India ecoregion and Andaman and Nicobar Islands ecoregion; it is absent from the Western India ecoregion, the mid intertidal shore of which instead harbors Tetraclita ehasani and Tetraclitella karandei
Summary
India is one of the 12 mega-biodiversity countries and has 25 biodiversity hotspots, containing a considerable number of endangered species (Myers et al, 2000; Venkataraman and Wafar, 2005; Venkataraman and Raghunathan, 2015). India supports a rich diversity of marine habitats and invertebrate fauna (Aneesh et al, 2018; Trivedi et al, 2018; Kottarathil et al, 2019; Shih et al, 2019; Aneesh and Kappalli, 2020). India contains 7516.6 km of coastline—5422.6 km in the Indian Peninsula and 2094 km in islands (Andaman and Nicobar Islands: 1962 km; Lakshadweep Islands: 132 km) (Ahmad, 1972; Kumar et al, 2006; Trivedi et al, 2018). More than 1400 species of barnacle were recorded from different oceanic regions across the world (Innocenti, 2006; Chan et al, 2009). Barnacles occur in almost all marine environments, from intertidal zones to the deepest parts of the oceans (Chan and Høeg, 2015). Darwin (1851, 1854) monographs on barnacles, written shortly after Burmeister’s publication, became one of the major contributions to barnacle taxonomy
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