Lepas

Lepas is a genus of goose barnacles, which are marine crustaceans highly adapted for a sedentary lifestyle. These barnacles are typically found worldwide, often attached to driftwood. As adults, they are characterized by calcareous plates and are cemented head-down to surfaces like rocks or ships' hulls. They filter food particles from the water using feathery appendages called cirri. Lepas are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female reproductive organs, and they reproduce by cross-fertilization. Their larval stage, known as nauplii, eventually develops into a nonfeeding cypris stage before cementing itself and metamorphosing into an adult barnacle.12