Copepod
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.
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| Subclass: | Copepoda H. Milne-Edwards, 1840
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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. |
Copepod Media
Copepods from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur
Copepod with two eyes of genus Corycaeus
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.
An egg sack of a Copepod which belongs to the Crustacea
Lernaeolophus sultanus (Pennellidae), parasite of the fish Pristipomoides filamentosus, scale: each division = 1 mm
Acanthochondria cornuta, an ectoparasite on flounder in the North Sea
