Barnacles (Cirripedia: Thoracica) of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia

Abstract

Thirty-five species of littoral and shallow-water barnacle species were collected during the expeditions and fieldwork in the tropical waters of the Dampier Archipelago. Barnacle communities stratify on the basis of depth, With intertidal, shallow subtidal and deeper subtidal communities recognisable. Clear distribution differences exist between intertidal and deeper water communities; the shallower water subtidal community is somewhat intermediate, with some species wide-ranging. Species diversity is greatest in the intertidal whereas many of the deeper water stations are dominated by only one or two species A checklist produced from barnacle records contained in the collections of Australian museums presently documents 49 littoral and shallow-water barnacle species from the Dampier Archipelago. The fauna is dominated by species with Indo-West Pacific and lndo-Australian distributions. It shows strong affinities with that of the Kimberley area to the north and many similarities with those of the more southern Muiron Islands, Exmouth Gulf and Montebello Islands in northern Western Australia. The fauna, however, differs significantly from the barnacle fauna of the southern Australian warm temperate province. First collections of Balmllls reticlIlatlls and Megabalal1l1s rosa raise the number of introduced barnacle species currently recorded from the Dampier Archipelago to six.