Notochthamalus is composed of 6 compartmental plates, composed of a carina, rostrum, and paired carinolatera and rostrolatera. Sutures between plates made up of poorly developed oblique folded laminae with membraneous basis. Plates are colored dull purplish brown, weathering to gray. Free-growing shellis are conic, crowded colonies become cylindrical, with plate sutures obscured. Opercular plates are narrow and deeply interlocked.[1]: 468 The interior of the tergum shows a tergal depressor muscle pit with overhang and no crests, or only relics thereof. Neither shell nor opercular plates show secondary fusion with age.[2][6]: 79 The best character for field identification are the undulations along the tergal-scutal margins. Given the overall appearance of the operculum of Notochthamalus, it is sometimes called the "vampire barnacle".
^ abcPoltarukha, O. P. (2006). Identification Atlas of Superfamily Chthamaloidea (Cirripedia Thoracica) barnacles in World Ocean. Moscow: KMK Scientific Press, Ltd. pp. 1–198 [In Russian]. ISBN978-5-87317-278-8.
^Newman, W. A.; A. Ross (1976). "Revision of the Balanomorph Barnacles including a catalog of the species". Memoirs of San Diego Society of Natural History. 9: 1–108.
^Poltarukha, O. P. (1996). "Composition, phylogeny and position in system of subfamily Notochthamalinae (Crustacea, Chthamalidae)". Zoologicheskii Zhurnal. 75 (7): 985–994. ISSN0044-5134.