NOTES AND NEWS THE BARNACLE, XENOBALANUS GLOBICIPITIS (CIRRIPEDIA, CORONULIDAE), ATTACHED TO THE BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN, TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS (MAMMALIA, CETACEA) ON THE SOUTHEASTERN COAST OF INDIA BY SUBRAMANIAN KARUPPIAH 1,3 ), ANNAMALAI SUBRAMANIAN 2 ) and JEFFREY PHILIP OBBARD 1 ) 1 ) Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore, 14 Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119223, Rep. of Singapore 2 ) Center for Marine Environment Studies, Ehime University, Bunkyo-Cho 2-5, Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan Marine mammals have traditionally been hunted and killed by humans in pelagic expeditions using harpoons, which has resulted in drastic reduction of their populations worldwide. Likewise, diseases and the infection of individuals by parasites also have the capacity to reduce populations. Also dolphins are attacked by a variety of parasites, both internal and external. Among these, a variety of different barnacles is known to colonize the skin of many marine mammals, particularly in temperate waters (Rittmaster et al., 1999). Like various other species of Cetacea, the bottle-nosed dolphin, Tursiops trun- catus (Montagu, 1821) is known to populate the waters adjacent to Parangipettai, on the southeast coast of India (Kumaran, 1989). A female bottle-nosed dolphin stranded on the Parangipettai coast on 29 March 1998 was found to have four “pseudo-stalked” barnacles, Xenobalanus globicipitis Steenstrup, 1851 on its fluke (fig. 1). These barnacles were alive even after the period of more than 24 hours that the specimen must have been present in estuarine waters. MacDonald & Evans (1984) previously recorded an acorn barnacle, Xenoba- lanus sp. on the body of whales and dolphins, and Mathews (1938) has recorded Xenobalanus globicipitis on Sei whales, Balaenoptera borealis (Lesson, 1828) from the southern hemisphere and the north Pacific. Rice (1977) also recorded a parasitic infection of Xenobalanus sp. on the blue whale Balaenoptera musculus 3 ) e-mail: tmssk@nus.edu.sg © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2004 Crustaceana 77 (7): 879-882 Also available online: www.brill.nl