Monday, April 24, 2017

NT1582, Dalgety Bay, Fife - Zombie Crab

After adding a handful of not-particulary-interesting microfungi and another couple of flies I was able to make a low tide foray on Sunday morning. First Common Terns of the year were screeching around Hopeward Point and I eventually found this young Edible Crab ...


I don't expect to see Spirobranchus worm on the top of a baby crab so I turned it over and ...


there it was -  Sacculina carcini - the parasitic barnacle, noted to be common in Green Shore Crab population, but apparently also in Edible Crab. The Collins field guide had this curious comment: "We only include this species for completeness as undoubtedly everyone in the British isles is already familiar with it". How very odd ... I guess I'm the last then.

Numbers:
484 Cepaea hortensis White-lipped Snail
485 Linaria cannabina Linnet
486 Parasyrphus punctulatus A hoverfly
487 Scathophaga stercoraria A fly
488 Ascochyta mercurialis A fungus
489 Peyronellaea curtisii A fungus
490 Anthostomella rubicola A fungus
491 Colletotrichum dematium A fungus
492 Sterna hirundo Common Tern
493 Sacculina carcini A barnacle


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3 comments:

  1. GibsterApril 24, 2017 at 4:56 PM

    Nope, I'm the other one still to find that parasitic barnacle. Presumably the last of my kind? Just a gnat's fart away from the halfway mark now, Ali!

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  2. AliApril 25, 2017 at 9:01 AM

    Yeah I know ;) It was your earlier blog that alerted me to the significance of suspicious epibionts on the shell. I probably have enough material to get over the line IF I can identify it all. I could always just double count something ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. GibsterApril 25, 2017 at 9:09 AM

    Or just add stuff you haven't seen. Works for me!

    ReplyDelete

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