Image Key > Copepoda > Calanoida > Clausocalanus ingens
Clausocalanus ingens
Frost and Fleminger 1968
Taxonomy
| Phylum |
Arthropoda |
| Subphylum |
Crustacea |
| Class |
Maxillopoda |
| Subclass |
Copepoda |
| Order |
Calanoida |
| Family |
Clausocalanidae |
| Genus |
Clausocalanus |
Size
- Male: 0.99-1.08 mm.
- Female: 1.44-1.90 mm.
Distinguishing characteristics
- Blue tinting on the cuticle edge of the metasome and swimming legs (persists in formalin preserved specimens for some years).
- Head and pedigerous segment 1 are fused.
- pedigerous segments 4 and 5 usually fused.
- Caudal rami with 4 sub-equal terminal setae, outer border without setae (Frost and Fleminger 1968, Nyan Taw 1978, Bradford-Grieve 1999).
Male
- Rostrum in lateral view knob-like and protruding ventrally.
- Caudal rami less than 1.6 times as long as wide.
- Right fifth leg 3-segmented.
Female
- Forehead protuberant anterior to the rostrum.
- Rostrum in lateral view long, slender and curved ventro-posteriorly.
- Genital segment more than 1.5 times as long as urosome segment 3.
- Females can be recognised by the shape of the seminal receptacle: ventral lobe is small in lateral view (though conspicuous in ventral view), while the dorsal lobe is long and thick.
Distribution
- Coastal, oceanic, and warm temperate, southern hemisphere and circumglobal.
- South eastern Tasmania (Nyan Taw 1978).
Ecology
- Little is known about this species although it is often common in plankton collections.
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