Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Sacculina Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Crustacea Class: Cirripedia Order: Rhizocephala Family: Sacculinidae Genus: Sacculina Species S. atlantica S. bicuspidata S. bourdoni S. carcini S. gerbei S. gibbsi S. gonoplaxae S. inflata Ref: ITIS 89755 2002-12-14 Sacculina is a genus of barnacles that are parasitic on crabs. The adults bear no resemblance to the barnacles that cover ships and piers; they are recognised as barnacles because their larval forms are like other members of the barnacle class Cirripedia. The female Sacculina larva finds a crab and walks on it until it finds a joint. It then molts, injecting its soft body into the crab while its shell falls off. The Sacculina grows in the crab, emerging as a bump on the underside of the crab's rear thorax, where the crab's eggs would be incubated. The male Sacculina looks for a female Sacculina adult on the underside of a crab. He then enters and fertilizes her eggs. The crab cares for the eggs as she would have her own, having been spayed by the parasite. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.