Onychocorycaeus agilis
Dana (1849)
Download a fact sheet for Onychocorycaeus agilis (PDF 400KB)
Taxonomy
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Crustacea |
| Class | Maxillopoda |
| Subclass | Copepoda |
| Order | Cyclopoida |
| Family | Corycaeidae |
| Genus | Onychocorycaeus |
| Species | agilis |
Size
- Female: 1.00 - 1.16 mm
- Male: 0.75 - 1.40 mm
Distinguishing characters
- Peg like endopod of P4 with single seta
- Proportional length of urosome somites and caudal rami
- Female with very wide cephalosome
- Male with long distal hook on A2 and minute ventral hook on genital somite
- Both sexes long caudal rami compared to other Onychocorycaeus
Male
- May have minute median hook on ventral proximal corner of genital somite
- Caudal rami just longer than anal somite and slightly shorter than genital somite
Female
- Prosome robust, 1.5 times as long as urosome
- 2nd segment of antenna very broad, 2 teeth on inner distal margin
- P4 endopodite has one seta
- Urosome and caudal rami slender
- Anal somite 2 times as long as wide
- Caudal rami slightly longer than anal somite and same length as genital somite
Distribution
- Epipelagic
- Coastal and oceanic
- Australian distribution includes Christmas Island, Great Barrier Reef, New South Wales and North West Cape
- World distribution: tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, also found off South Africa
Ecology
- Females carry egg sacs
- Carnivorous
References
- Bradford-Grieve, J. M., E. L. Markhaseva, et al. (1999). Copepoda. South Atlantic Zooplankton. D. Boltovskoy. Leiden, The Netherlands, Backhuys Publishers. 1: 869-1098.