First record of the turtle barnacle Stephanolepas muricata (Fischer, 1886) from the Bay of Monastir (Eastern coast of Tunisia)

Abstract

The sessile barnacles Balanomorpha included in the family Platylepadidae are obligatory symbionts of motile marine animals, with some species occurring solely on turtles, sea snakes, and fish. Stomatolepadine barnacles like Stephanolepas are characterized by nearly- to fully-encapsulating the shell in host tissue. This barnacle is currently known from turtles in the Pacific, Indian and North Atlantic Oceans and in the Mediterranean Sea. In that basin S.muricata has been reported only in the Spanish and Italian waters and in the South of Tunisia. In this note, we document the first record of S. muricata in the bay of Monastir (eastern coast of Tunisia) on a loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta.