Erroneously cirrhi-. Zool. [a. mod.F. cirripède, f. mod.L. pl. cirripeda, -pedia (also used in Eng.), f. cirrus curl + pes, ped- foot. See CIRRH-, CIRRHOPOD.]
A member of the Cirripedia or Cirripeda, a class of marine animals of the Sub-kingdom Annulosa, closely related to the Crustacea, but in the adult state much less developed; enclosed in a shell consisting of many valves which is cemented, sessile or attached by a flexible stalk, to other bodies. They include the barnacles and acorn-shells. The name refers to the appearance of the legs, which can be protruded like a curled lock of hair from between the valves.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 121. Class IV.—Cirripeda. (Mollusca Cirrhopoda, Cuv.).
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 108, note. So loaded with cirrhipeds, and with numerous ova, that all the upper part of its shell is invisible.
1855. Gosse, Marine Zool., I. 168. The bivalve shell is thrown off, and the little cirriped is seen in its true form.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iv. (1873), 79. Cirripedes long appeared to me to present … a case of great difficulty.
attrib. 1865. Reader, No. 150. 545/1. The cirriped order of crustacea.
