The creature is dark in coloration and up to long. It hangs from tails,
dorsal fins, flippers, and less commonly
rostrums and
baleen plates/teeth. In a sample population of the dolphin
Stenella coeruleoalba, by far the most frequent site of occurrence were the flukes. This animal is native to tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters around the world. It can cluster in various amounts, from one to one hundred, depending on the size and the animal and where on it they've adhered. These creatures are "
sessile" — once they latch on with the shell base, they don't move off unless they need to (for example, if the water gets too cold for them). They burrow themselves into the skin and
blubber of their host, though they are not technically parasitic and instead engage in
phoresis. == Feeding ==