Chthamalus fragilis

Chthamalus fragilis
Chthamalus fragilis on a leaf of Spartina alterniflora
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Thecostraca
Subclass:	Cirripedia
Order:	Balanomorpha
Family:	Chthamalidae
Genus:	Chthamalus Foster, 1980
Species:	C. fragilis
Binomial name
Chthamalus fragilis (Darwin, 1854)[1]

Chthamalus fragilis is a small gray barnacle found in the upper intertidal zone of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, from approximately Cape Cod southward to Florida and into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. It is also commonly known as little grey barnacle. The species is believed to have been distributed only as far northward as North Carolina or Virginia until the late 1800s, when it was noticed along the Massachusetts coast. The species may have expanded its range naturally or been introduced to New England through anthropogenic activities.^[2] Chthamalus fragilis is unusual in that it often recruits to stems of Spartina alterniflora.^[3]

References

1. "Chthamalus fragilis Darwin, 1854". The Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
2. Govindarajan, AF; Bukša, F; Bockrath, K; Wares, JP; Pineda, J (April 30, 2015). "Phylogeographic structure and northward range expansion in the barnacle Chthamalus fragilis". PeerJ. 3: e926. doi:10.7717/peerj.926. PMC 4419548. PMID 25945315.
3. O'Riordan, RM; Power, AM; Myers, AA (2010). "Factors, at different scales, affecting the distribution of species of the genus Chthamalus Ranzani (Cirripedia, Balanomorpha, Chthamaloidea". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 392 (1–2): 46–64. doi:10.1016/J.Jembe.2010.04.010.