Pollicipes
pollicipes
Range & Status
The preferred habitat of Pollicipes pollicipes is on wave-beaten rocks on the open coast
but, at the northern edge of its range in Cornwall, it is confined to deep
crevices and underhangs where it is difficult to
find. Recorded in very small numbers from the far southwest
of Cornwall. Two specimens were found and collected near Land' s End in 1880 and deposited in the Natural History
Museum, London. More recently, 1984, a single specimen was found in a crevice
between granite rocks below Carn L\'eas Boel. In 2005 a single
specimen was found on rocks between Sennen and Land' s End, later, in 2007, two more were found there. Also
in 2007 three were found on rocks below Tater Du lighthouse and a further
specimen in 2008 at nearby Boscawen Point. These Cornish records suggest
occasional settlement resulting from a drift of larvae produced by the more
abundant populations on the warmer shores of the Bay of Biscay. Outside the
British Isles Pollicipes pollicipes is a Lusitanian/temperate warm species
occurring from north Brittany, near Roscoff, down the
Atlantic coast of France, Spain and Portugal, also north
Africa as far south as Senegal. Commercial harvesting for sale has reduced the
natural populations in Spain to alarmingly low levels. Pollicipes
pollicipes is on the UK List of Priority Species.