Description: This small pink-coloured barnacle is always found attached to solitary stony cup corals (e.g. Caryophyllia smithii). The outer shell is a single piece, made up of fused plates on a cup-shaped base. The outer surface is ribbed but often overgrown and obscured by the tissue of the coral on which it lives. The opercular aperture is relatively small in relation to overall body size and can vary in shape. The tergo-scutal flap is a sheath with white vertical bars.

Habitat: Always found in association with solitary stony cup corals, most often subtidally but can occasionally be found intertidally on the lower shore if cup corals are present.

Distribution: Believed to be a southern species but spreading northwards. Most common in the south and southwest of England but has now reached as far north as Rathlin Island and The Maidens in Northern Ireland, and there are a few scattered records from Scotland.

Similar Species: Unlikely to be confused with any other species, given its association with cup corals. Verruca stroemia is occasionally reported as growing close to the base of stony cup corals but Adna anglica should be easily distinguished from this.

Key Identification Features:

• Small barnacle attached to solitary stony cup corals.
• Fused, ribbed outer shell, often obscured by tissue of the coral.
• Tergo-scutal flap is a sheath with white vertical bars.

Distribution Map from NBN: Adna anglica at National Biodiversity Network mapping facility, data for UK.

iNaturalist: Adna anglica at iNaturalist World Species Observations database.

GBIF data for Adna anglica

WoRMS: Adna anglica at World Register of Marine Species. Accepted name: Adna anglica (Sowerby, 1823). AphiaID: 535458.

Classification: Biota; Animalia; Arthropoda; Crustacea; Multicrustacea; Thecostraca; Cirripedia; Thoracica; Thoracicalcarea; Balanomorpha; Balanoidea; Pyrgomatidae; Megatrematinae; Adna