Sea turtles are partners in commensal relationships with a variety of epibionts, including barnacles. The acorn barnacle Chelonibia testudinaria is one species commonly found associated with sea turtles and other marine fauna throughout temperate to tropical waters including the Indo-Pacific. We conducted a study to assess the occurrence of this barnacle, relative to host life stage and species in a mixed foraging population of green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) turtles (juvenile, sub-adult, adults (female and male)) in Mabul Island, Sabah, Malaysia (Celebes Sea). Expecting similar relative abundance by life stage, we found instead a significant effect between the combined dependent variables (abundance and size of barnacles) and the life stages of sea turtles in Mabul after controlling for the covariates of size and species of sea turtles (F(8, 428) = 5.77, P < 0.001, Pillai = 0.19). Among green turtles with barnacles, though adult males had larger barnacles compared with the female turtles, the mean barnacle abundance on adult females (43.4 individuals ± 5.19 SD) was higher than all other life stages. Most of the barnacles (85.6%; N = 1931) were found on the plastron of the sea turtles. The highest number of barnacle reacquisition was found among the juvenile turtles. In assessing the complemental males of the barnacles, we found they were consistently attached to the shells of the larger of the hermaphrodites from each region of the host's body despite average shell-size differences with each region.

中文翻译：

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马来西亚马布岛中生代藤壶 Chelonibia testudinaria 相对于宿主龟的大小和种类的丰度、位置和性别特征

海龟是与包括藤壶在内的各种附生生物建立共生关系的伙伴。橡子藤壶龟头龟是一种常见的与海龟和其他海洋动物群有关的物种，遍及包括印度太平洋在内的温带至热带水域。我们进行了一项研究，以评估这种藤壶的发生情况，相对于宿主生命阶段和绿色混合觅食种群中的物种（大螯虾) 和玳瑁 (红毛茛) 海龟（幼年、亚成年、成年（雌性和雄性））在马来西亚沙巴州马布岛（西里伯斯海）。预计生命阶段的相对丰度相似，我们发现在控制了海龟大小和种类的协变量后，组合因变量（藤壶的丰度和大小）与马布海龟的生命阶段之间存在显着影响（F(8, 428) = 5.77,磷< 0.001，皮莱 = 0.19）。在有藤壶的绿海龟中，虽然成年雄性的藤壶比雌性海龟大，但成年雌性的平均藤壶丰度（43.4 个体 ± 5.19 SD）高于所有其他生命阶段。大多数藤壶（85.6%；N = 1931）是在海龟的腹甲上发现的。在幼龟中发现了最多的藤壶重新获取。在评估藤壶的互补雄性时，我们发现它们始终附着在宿主身体每个区域的较大雌雄同体的壳上，尽管每个区域的平均壳大小存在差异。