Abstract
The subfamily Acastinae contains a diverse group of barnacles that are obligate symbionts of sponges and alcyonacean and antipatharian corals. Integrating morphological and genetic (COI) data to compare against known species, this paper reports on nine species of sponge-inhabiting barnacles of the subfamily Acastinae, including three undescribed species (Acasta caveata sp. nov., Euacasta acutaflava sp. nov., and E. excoriatrix sp. nov.) and three species previously not recorded in Australian waters (A. sandwichi, Pectinoacasta cancellorum, and P. sculpturata). The new species are distinguished from similar species by a suite of morphological characters as well as genetic distances. A lectotype for Pectinoacasta cancellorum is designated. Sponge hosts were identified for all specimens where possible and are represented by 19 species from eight families and five orders.
Highlights
Barnacles can be found as obligate commensals with a variety of taxa, but those in symbiosis with sponges are proving to be diverse [1,2,3,4]
This paper reports on a collection of sponge-inhabiting barnacles from across Australian territorial waters as part of a broader study on the biodiversity of commensal barnacles
Hosts for most of the previously reported barnacle species are still unknown (e.g. [86,87]), and given how integral this is to understanding barnacle biodiversity and patterns of speciation [1,4,17], it is the other key gap in our knowledge
Summary
Barnacles can be found as obligate commensals with a variety of taxa, but those in symbiosis with sponges are proving to be diverse [1,2,3,4]. This group had been arranged within informal groups based on characters of the fourth cirrus by Broch [6] and opercular plates by Hiro [7] under the genus Acasta sensu Leach, 1817 [8] Neither author took this further, largely due to the close affinity with Conopea Say, 1812 [9], and Membranobalanus Hoek, 1913 [10], whose members are obligate commensals with cnidarians and sponges, respectively, and Armatobalanus [10], which contained a mixture of free-living and commensal species. Kolbasov [5], in his revision of Acasta, was the first to evaluate host usage in the Acasta and how that was reflected in his newly proposed phylogeny and generic arrangement, which revealed some loose trends, but was hampered by a distinct lack of previously published host data
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