The shallow-water barnacles (cirripedia: lepadomorpha, balanomorpha) of southern Western Australia.

Abstract

Thirty one species of shore and shallow-water barnacles have been collected from southern areas of Western Australia. Each species is fully described and illustrated and a key to the suborders and families is included to facilitate identification. The barnacles exhibit a large cosmopolitan component (51%), a relatively high Australian endemic element (19%) and smaller elements with Australasian (10%), Indian Ocean/Malay Archipelago (10%) or Indo-West Pacific (10%) faunal affinities. Members of the family Chthamalidae are absent from shores in the southern Western Australian region. Shore zonation shows a tetraclitid-balanid pattern, rather than the chthamalid-tetraclitid-balanid zonation characteristic of south-eastern and north-western Australian shores. Possible reasons for this contracted zonation pattern and for the paucity of barnacles in south-western areas of Australia are discussed.