Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 4, 2026

The Barnacle Balanus improvisus as a Marine Model - Culturing and Gene Expression
Published on: August 8, 2018
Descriptions of four new sponge-inhabiting barnacles (Thoracica: Archaeobalanidae: Acastinae)
Meng-Chen Yu1, Gregory A Kolbasov, Andrew M Hosie
1Doctoral Degree Program in Marine Biotechnology, National Sun Yat-sen University and Academia Sinica, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan. Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.. yu19871125@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Within the family Archaeobalanidae, the sponge-inhabiting barnacles include species from the subfamilies Acastinae and Bryozobiinae as well as from the genus Membranobalanus in the subfamily Archaeobalaninae. Members of these groups are obligatory symbionts of poriferans, but the Acastinae can also be found in association with alcyonaceans and antipatharians. Acasta sulcata Lamarck, 1818, is one of the most widely reported sponge-inhabiting barnacle species, with numerous records across the Indo-West Pacific region revealing significant morphological variation. A combined morphological and molecular approach has revealed high diversity in recent collections of sponge-inhabiting barnacles in Taiwan and Australia, and four new species, namely Acasta aspera sp. nov., Acasta huangi sp. nov., Acasta radenta sp. nov., and Acasta undulaterga sp. nov., have been described here. All four species are morphologically close to A. sulcata, and the morphological similarity between these proposed species has led to the proposal of a "sulcata species complex."
Related Concept Videos
Pleural Disorders: Types and Brief Description
Eulerian and Lagrangian Flow Descriptions
The Eulerian method focuses on fixed points in space where fluid properties, such as velocity, pressure, and temperature, are observed as the fluid moves between these...
What is Biodiversity?
The Colonization of Land
Osmoregulation in Insects
Ecological Niches

