Lepas commonly known as ship or goose barbacle.It is a stalked crustacean.It is found as in seas attached by a peduncle to wooden ships.The peduncle is highly movable and the oral end of the body contains the vestiges of the antennules.The proper or capitulum is protected by a bivalved mantle or carapace which is further strengthened by five large calcareous plates-two proximal scuta,two distal terga and a single dorsal carina.The larva is cypris which after a free swimming period settles to the bottom and growth into the stalked adult.The ventral mantle opening are protruded six pairs of delicate filament like or cirriform thoracic appendages .They feed upon minute organisms gathered from the water by the thread like feet and kicked into mouth.The lepas is hermaphrodite.
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