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| Copepod | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Maxillopoda |
| Subclass: | Copepoda H. Milne-Edwards, 1840 |
Copepods (meaning "oar feet") are small, shrimp-like crustaceans that swim in seas, lakes, and ponds. Copepods are very important in the food web, and many animals eat them.
There are 10 orders of copepods and over 4500 species; a few orders are free-swimming, but many are parasites (of fish). The free-swimming copepods move through the water in jerky motions by moving their swimming legs.
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Wikispecies has information on: Copepoda. |
Copepods from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur
Most copepods have a single naupliar eye in the middle of their head, but copepods of the genus Corycaeus possess two large cuticular lenses paired to form a telescope.
Slow-motion macrophotography video (50%), taken using ecoSCOPE, of juvenile Atlantic herring (38 mm) feeding on copepods – the fish approach from below and catch each copepod individually. In the middle of the image, a copepod escapes successfully to the left.
Egg sac of a copepod
Lernaeolophus sultanus (Pennellidae), parasite of the fish Pristipomoides filamentosus, scale: each division = 1 mm
