Pseudocalanus minutus (Krøyer, 1845)
One of most abundance shelf copepods of Arctic shelves
Size
- Eggs 0.13 mm
- Females 0.95-1.5 mm prosome, 1.35-2.15 mm total length
- Males 1.12-1.62 mm total length
Color & Characteristics
- Body almost completely transparent, red color may be prominant on posterior quarter of prosome, mouth parts, and/or parts of the urosome (the tail)
- Lipid sac can be prominant
- Urosome (tail) somewhat long (~40% of prosome)
- Antennae longer then prosome, but less than total length
- Anterior of body somewhat peaked with prominent spines on posteriot ventral margins of thorathic segments I & II
Habitat
- Boreal to arctic waters
- Abundant on shelves, limited occurrence over deep basins
- Outside of the Arctic, it moves into deeper, colder waters seasonally
Feeding
- Suspension "filter" feeder on phytoplankton and protists
- Lipid deposits accumulated for over-wintering
- Thought to be one of the arctic's key grazers in shelf waters
Life cycle
- Females beginning spawn in spring at least partly based on lipid reserves from previous year, with continued reproduction throughout the summer
- Female carries eggs in a single large clutch until hatching
- Clutch size dependent on size of female with maximums of ~60 and typically ~30 eggs
- Generation length estimated at 1 year
- Life expectancy unknown
Page Author: Russ Hopcroft
Created: November 14, 2009
