Morphological distribution of pedunculate barnacle Octolasmis cor (Aurivillius, 1892) found on gill of wild mud crab (Genus: Scylla) from terengganu coastal waters, Malaysia

Abstract

More than one species of pedunculate barnacle genus Octolasmis are found attached on the gill of wild mud crab in this study. For the gill preference study, Octolasmis cor prefers to attach on the gill G3 to G6. The areas of site infection are still in the middle part of the mud crab gill. These results are different with previous studies which prefer G7 as attachment. For the identification study, twenty good specimens, that have been mounted on glass slide, were taken for identification of morphological part. The general part of shape, carina and scutum were captured and drawn using lucida camera (Leica). Shape of carina (1.44±0.29), capitular plates (3.04±0.53), capitulum (1.74±0.35) and peduncle (2.32±0.39) of Octolasmis cor were measured, respectively. Data analysis using one-way ANOVA show that part of carina and scutum show significant difference (p>0.05) and can be used as identification tools. Studies on genus Octolasmis were not well-published. Most of previous literatures just explain the genus of Octolasmis but not into species because of no standard method for identification of this genus.