Abstract

The pedunculate barnacle Scalpellum projectum Nilsson-Cantell, 1930, was described based on benthic material from a telegraph cable recovered from deep waters off Antofagasta (~S). No new records have been reported for this species worldwide since its original description. Six adult females of S. projectum were collected during recent studies of communities associated with methane seeps. The material was taken from three stations located between 34°o42' and 36°o22'S and at depths of 846 to 922 m. We provide taxonomic information based on the external morphology of the specimens, whose sizes coincide in general terms with those of the original description. No male specimens were observed; these are smaller, aberrant in form, and live within the scuta in the capitulum of the females. With this second finding, the distributional range of this species, previously only reported for the slope off Chile, is extended about 17°o latitude southwards (1,800 km) and its bathymetric range is expanded by 200 m.