Thompsonia is a genus of barnacles which has evolved into an endoparasite of other crustaceans, including crabs and snapping shrimp.[1] It spreads through the host's body as a network of threads, and produces many egg capsules which emerge through joints in the host's shell.[2]
The first scientific description of the genus was Robby Kossmann's description in 1872 of Thompsonia globosa.[3][4] Kossmann named the genus after John Vaughan Thompson, the Irish naturalist who had recognised the cirripedian affinities of the Rhizocephala.[3] The type specimens had been collected by Georg Semper in the East Indies, on the legs of the crab Lybia tessellata.[3] Eleven species are now recognised:[5]
Thompsonia is a genus of barnacles which has evolved into an endoparasite of other crustaceans, including crabs and snapping shrimp. It spreads through the host's body as a network of threads, and produces many egg capsules which emerge through joints in the host's shell.
