Editing Rhizocephala (section)

{{Short description|Superorder of barnacles}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Sacculina carcini.jpg
| image_caption = Externa (highlighted) of mature female ''[[Sacculina]]'' on a female ''[[Liocarcinus holsatus]]''
| taxon = Rhizocephala
| authority = [[Fritz Müller|Müller]], 1862
}}

'''Rhizocephala''' are derived [[barnacle]]s that are [[parasitic castrator]]s. Their hosts are mostly [[Decapoda|decapod]] [[crustacean]]s, but include [[Peracarida]], [[mantis shrimp]]s and [[thoracica]]n barnacles. Their habitats range from the deep ocean to freshwater.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pérez-Losada |first1=Marcos |last2=Høeg |first2=Jens T |author-link3=Keith A. Crandall|last3=Crandall |first3=Keith A |title=Remarkable convergent evolution in specialized parasitic Thecostraca (Crustacea) |journal=BMC Biology |date=17 April 2009 |volume=7 |pages=15 |doi=10.1186/1741-7007-7-15 |pmid=19374762 |pmc=2678073 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Walker |first1=Graham |title=Introduction to the Rhizocephala (Crustacea: Cirripedia) |journal=Journal of Morphology |date=July 2001 |volume=249 |issue=1 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.1002/jmor.1038 |pmid=11410936 |s2cid=41339146 }}</ref> Together with their sister groups [[Thoracica]] and [[Acrothoracica]], they make up the subclass [[Barnacle|Cirripedia]].<ref name=Chan2021/> Their [[body plan]] is uniquely reduced in an extreme [[adaptation (biology)|adaptation]] to their parasitic lifestyle, and makes their relationship to other barnacles unrecognisable in the adult form. The name Rhizocephala derives from the [[Ancient Greek]] roots {{wikt-lang|grc|ῥίζα}} ({{transliteration|grc|rhiza}}, "root") and {{wikt-lang|grc|κεφαλή}} ({{transliteration|grc|kephalē}}, "head"), describing the adult female, which mostly consists of a network of thread-like extensions penetrating the body of the host.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.myetymology.com/latin/Rhizocephala.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005141638/http://www.myetymology.com/latin/Rhizocephala.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=October 5, 2011 |title=Etymology of the Latin word Rhizocephala |publisher=MyEtymology |access-date=June 24, 2011}}</ref>