Acrocalanus gracilis
Giesbrecht (1888)
Download a fact sheet for Acrocalanus gracilis (PDF 332KB)
Taxonomy
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Crustacea |
| Class | Maxillopoda |
| Subclass | Copepoda |
| Order | Calanoida |
| Family | Paraclanidae |
| Genus | Acrocalanus |
| Species | gracilis |
Size
- Female: 1.2-1.32 mm
- Male: 0.88-1.00 mm
Distinguishing characteristics
- Distal toothed outer border of exp3 P4 is 80% of length of proximal part
- Female P5 is rudimentary
- Male P5 only present on left
Male
- A1 reaches just beyond caudal rami
- No hump on cephalosome
- P5 left 5 segmented and reaches to end of urosome somite 2
- P5 right is vestigial or absent
Female
- Cephalosome evenly rounded in lateral view
- A1 exceeds end of caudal rami by 3-4 segments
- Line between cephalosome and first pedigerous somite is rarely visible
- Distal toothed outer border of exp3 P4 is 80% of length of proximal part
Distribution
- Epipelagic, sometimes deeper
- Coastal and oceanic
- Distribution in Australia includes Great Barrier Reef, Moreton Bay, North West Cape and New South Wales
- World distribution: recorded from tropical regions of all oceans
Ecology
- Can be transported into temperate regions via warm water currents
- More abundant offshore on the Great Barrier Reef
- Herbivorous filter feeder
References
- Bradford-Grieve, J. M. (1994). The marine fauna of New Zealand: Pelagic Copepoda: Megacalanidae, Calanidae, Paracalanidae, Mecynoceridae, Eucalanidae, Spinocalanidae, Clausocalanidae. National INstitue of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand.
- Bradford-Grieve, J. M., E. L. Markhaseva, et al. (1999). Copepoda. South Atlantic Zooplankton. D. Boltovskoy. Leiden, The Netherlands, Backhuys Publishers. 1: 869-1098.
- Conway DVP, White, R.G., Hugues-Dit-Ciles, J., Gallienne, C.P. and Robins, D.B. (2003). Guide to the coastal and surface zooplankton of the south-western Indian Ocean, Vol Occasional Publications No. 15. Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.
- Dakin, W. J. & Colefax, A. N. (1940). The plankton of the Australian coastal waters off New South Wales, Volume 1, Australasian Medical Publishing Company, Limited.
- Razouls C., de Bovée F., Kouwenberg J. et Desreumaux N., 2005-2009. Diversity and Geographic Distribution of Marine Planktonic Copepods. Available at http://copepodes.obs-banyuls.fr/en
- Thorrold, S. R. (1993). "Zooplankton community structure and copepod egg production in coastal waters of the central Great Barrier Reef lagoon." Journal of Plankton Research 15(12): 1387-1411.