''Platylepas ophiophila'', commonly known as the sea snake barnacle, is a species of barnacle in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Platylepadidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean where it lives as a

symbiont Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

of a

sea snake Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, wher ...

Ecology

''Platylepas ophiophila'' is found living in association with several species of sea snake as an ectosymbiont. The barnacle adheres to the snake's skin, and has ribs that penetrate the snake's skin to make the attachment more secure. Nevertheless, the barnacle usually becomes detached when the snake sheds its skin. Barnacles breed by internal fertilisation, so individuals of this species have to be located adjacent to another individual in order to reproduce. Despite the fact that sea snakes are mobile and generally solitary, about half the sea snakes support barnacles. The barnacle may have adopted this lifestyle as a result of intense competition for space on coral reefs, rocks and other hard substrates; the advantages for the barnacle are freedom from predators, freedom from competitors, mobility, a feeding current, and possibly food fragments discarded by its host. This species of barnacle is short-lived because it dies when the sea snake sheds its skin; as the skin is sloughed every four to six weeks, it is presumed that the barnacle completes its life cycle within this period. When fixed to the spine-bellied sea snake (''Lapemis hardwickii'') the output of eggs is relatively small, and this may be an adaptation to the mode of life of its host. Another barnacle, '' Octolasmis warwickii'' adheres to the

slipper lobster Slipper lobsters are a family (Scyllaridae) of about 90 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda clade Reptantia, found in all warm oceans and seas. They are not true lobsters, but are more closely related to spiny lobsters and furry lo ...

(''Thenus orientalis''); it also dies when its host sheds its skin, but it has a much larger output of eggs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14117449 Barnacles Crustaceans described in 1902