L. anserifera. Linnæus. Syst. Naturæ, 1767.
Anatifa striata. Brug. Encyclop. Meth. (des vers), Pl. clxvi, fig. 3.
Pentalasmis dilatata! (young). Leach. Tuckey’s Congo Expedit., , 1818.
Anatifa sessilis (?). Quoy et Gaimard. Voyage de l’Astrolabe, Pl. xciii, fig. 11.
Lepas nauta. Macgillivray. Edin. New Phil. Journ., vol. xxxviii, .
Pentalasmis anseriferus. Brown. Illust. Conch., 1844, Pl. li, fig. 1.
Professor Macgillivray does not consider the species, which he has described under L. nauta, and which I cannot doubt is the same with the present species, as the L. anserifera of Linnæus; but I find it so named in all old collections, and it seems to agree very well with Linnæus’s description. There has been much groundless confusion about this species; I have no hesitation in giving A. striata, of Brugière, as a synonym, though I have received from Paris the Lepas pectinata of this volume, named as the A. striata; and on the other hand, Poli has incorrectly called a common variety of L. pectinata by the name of L. anserifera.
L. valvis approximatis leviter sulcatis (tergis præcipuè); scuto dextro dente forti interno umbonali, lævo aut dente exiguo, aut merâ cristâ instructo; margine occludente arcuato, prominente: pedunculi parte superiore aurantiacâ.
Valves approximate, slightly furrowed, especially the terga; right-hand scutum with a strong internal umbonal tooth; left-hand with a small tooth, or mere ridge; occludent margin arched, protuberant: uppermost part of peduncle orange-coloured.
Filaments five or six on each side.
Var. (dilatata, young); valves rather thin, finely furrowed, often strongly pectinated; scuta broad, with the occludent margins much arched, making the space wide between this margin and the ridge connecting the umbo and the apex: carina often barbed.
Common on ships’ bottoms from the Mediterranean, West Indies, South America, Mauritius, Coast of Africa and the East-Indian Archipelago. Central Pacific Ocean. China Sea. Chusan. Sydney. Attached to pumice, various species of fuci, Janthinæ, Spirulæ; often associated with L. anatifera and L. Hillii, and, in a young state, with L. fascicularis.
General Appearance. — Capitulum more or less elongated relatively to its breadth; in two specimens, with scuta of equal width, one was longer than the other by the whole of the occludent margin of the terga. Valves white, thick, (in young specimens sometimes diaphanous and thin,) closely approximate to each other; surfaces furrowed to a very variable amount. Terga generally more plainly furrowed than the scuta, of which the basal portion is generally less furrowed than the upper part; ridges, often rough, generally much narrower than the furrows: in half-grown specimens (var., dilatata of Leach,) the ridges are frequently denticulated, and there is even sometimes a row of bead-like teeth along the basal margins of the scuta. The ridges vary much, sometimes alternately wide and narrow; in two specimens of equal size, there were, in one, thirty-two ridges, and in the other only eighteen, on the scutum.
Scuta, with the occludent margin rounded and protuberant to a variable degree, but always leaving a rather wide space between the margin, and the ridge which runs from the umbo to the apex; apex pointed. Right-hand internal tooth considerably larger than that on the left, which is often reduced to a mere ridge; internal basal rim thick, sometimes furrowed along its upper edge, but of variable thickness, sometimes not extending as far as the baso-carinal angle. Terga, sometimes equalling, sometimes only two-thirds of, the length of the scuta; in young specimens, the two occludent margins form a right-angle with each other; in older specimens they form less than a right-angle, and hence the portion of valve thus bounded is unusually protuberant. Carina, within deeply concave; exterior sides finely furrowed longitudinally, generally denticulated; valve only slightly narrowed in above the fork, of which the prongs diverge at an angle of 90°, or rather more, and are wider than the widest upper part of the valve; rim between the prongs reflexed; the heel or external angle, just above the fork, sometimes considerably prominent. I have seen only a single large specimen with its carina barbed. In half-grown specimens, (var. dilatata, Leach,) the carina is often strongly barbed, with the upper point much acuminated, the fork about twice as wide as the widest upper part, and the prongs diverging at rather more than a right-angle. In some specimens, especially very young ones, there are at the base of the carina, above the fork, some strong, downward-pointed, inwardly-hooked, calcareous teeth; such occur also in some specimens along the basal margins of the scuta, two of these hooked teeth under the umbones of the scuta being larger than the rest: specimens conspicuously thus characterised came from the Navigator Islands; in these, I may add, the acutely triangular primordial valves were quite plain.
Peduncle, generally about as long as the capitulum; in young specimens generally short.
Filamentary Appendages, generally five, sometimes six, on each side; one is seated on the side of the prosoma, and the four others placed in pairs beneath the basal articulation of the first cirrus; the lowest posterior filament of the four generally is the largest. In young specimens, having a capitulum only half an inch long, the upper pair of the four often is not developed, or is represented by mere knobs. The mouth presents no distinctive characters. Cirri, with the longer ramus of the first pair almost equal to the shorter arms of the second pair; spine-bearing surfaces only slightly protuberant. Caudal appendages smooth, curved, pointed.
Size. — The largest specimen which I have seen, had a capitulum one inch and a half in length.
Colours. — The white valves are edged with bright orange membrane; and are so close to each other that no interspaces, coloured from the underlying corium, are left. Peduncle, dark orange-brown, with the uppermost part under the capitulum bright orange all round; the chitine membrane itself being thus coloured. Sack, internally, dark purplish lead-colour. Body and cirri, either nearly white or pale purplish-lead colour, with the arms of the second, third, and fourth cirri, and pedicels of the fifth and sixth, more or less tinted with orange. A specimen preserved during fourteen months in good spirits had only a tinge of orange left round the orifice and round the upper part of peduncle, and on the cirri. In some other specimens, badly preserved, the chitine membrane was quite colourless, and sack and cirri dirty lead-colour. Fresh ova, peach-blossom-red; immature ova, in ovarian tubes, pale pink.
Monstrous Variety. — In Mr. Stutchbury’s collection, there was a specimen, with the scuta, broad, smooth, thin, and fragile, without any ridge running from the umbo to the apex, and with the occludent margin reflexed. This seemed caused by the shell having been attacked by some boring animal, and from having supported Balani. In the same specimen the first cirrus on one side was monstrously thick and curled; the second cirrus had its posterior ramus in a rudimentary condition. In Mr. Cuming’s Collection, there are small specimens with the zones of growth overlapping each other, with thick irregular margins, and with the carina distorted.
This species has cost me much trouble: I have examined vast numbers of specimens, from a tenth to half an inch in length, attached to light floating objects, such as Janthinæ and Spirulæ from the tropical oceans, which all resembled each other, and slightly differed from the common appearance of L. anserifera: this variety is the Pentalasmis dilatata of Leach; and for a long time I considered it as a distinct species. It differs from L. anserifera, in the less thickness of the valves, in their being more finely and yet plainly furrowed; in the greater width of the scuta; and more especially, of that part of the valve lying between the occludent margin, and the ridge running from the umbo to the apex; in the less elongation of the area in the terga, bounded by the two occludent margins; and, lastly, in the less size of the whole individual. The trophi and cirri are absolutely identical. Lately, however, in carefully going over a great suite of specimens, all the above few distinctive characters broke down and insensibly graduated away; and I am convinced that this form is only a variety of L. anserifera; its different aspect being caused partly by youth, but chiefly, I suspect, from being attached to light objects floating close to the surface of the sea.
The Lepas anserifera can be distinguished by the slight furrows on its valves from all the other species, excepting L. pectinata: this latter species can be readily known, by the close proximity in the scuta of the occludent margin, and the ridge extending from the umbo to the apex; by its carina being very narrow above the fork; by the prongs of the fork diverging at an angle of from 135° to 180°; by the thinness of its valves; by the coarseness of the furrows on them; and lastly, by there being at most in L. pectinata only one filamentary appendage beneath the first cirrus.