Initiating into the Copepoda Harpacticoida's World...

Copepoda

The name copepod is derived from the Greek words kope meaning “oar” and podos meaning “foot” and literally means “oar-footed”. The Order Harpacticoida is one of the ten orders of the sub-classes of the lower Crustacea. At the moment, the order contains well over 3,000 species belonging to 460 genera contained in 50 families. Most species are free-swimming in marine and brackish water, although a few are ectoparasitic or commensal on corals, tunicates, crustaceans, cephalopods or baleen whales. Three families and 945 species are found exclusively in freshwater. Marine harpacticoids are primarily bottom-living copepods, although a few are exclusively planktonic, and are most abundant in soft sediments and on macro-algae. They are small, predominantly less than 1mm long, and are usually the second most abundant group of animals (after nematodes) in benthic meiofauna communities.
Harpacticoids are quite diverse, being difficult to find a typical representative of the Order. Therefore, a figure showing the diversity of forms on their families can be observed below…