Copepod

<p>Copepods  are a group of small <a href="/facts/Crustacean/PBobIVJP">crustaceans</a> found in nearly every <a href="/facts/Freshwater/xMP2TxwI">freshwater</a> and <a href="/facts/Saltwater/Tgw5AgL8">saltwater</a> <a href="/facts/Habitat_(ecology)/zo1DN2gA">habitat</a>. Some species are <a href="/facts/Plankton/WGo3LU9T">planktonic</a> (living in the water column), some are <a href="/facts/Benthos/DeHzh0sN">benthic</a> (living on the sediments), several species have <a href="/facts/Parasitism/HWPcgky7">parasitic phases</a>, and some continental species may live in limnoterrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests, bogs, springs, ephemeral ponds, puddles, damp moss, or water-filled recesses of plants (<a href="/facts/Phytotelmata/Vf9El3gv">phytotelmata</a>) such as <a href="/facts/Bromeliad/4dzWKIFY">bromeliads</a> and <a href="/facts/Pitcher_plant/yV0wqlng">pitcher plants</a>. Many live underground in marine and freshwater caves, <a href="/facts/Sinkhole/yrjCajL2">sinkholes</a>, or stream beds. Copepods are sometimes used as <a href="/facts/Ecological_indicator/e0fe5XdE">biodiversity indicators</a>.
</p><p>As with other crustaceans, copepods have a <a href="/facts/Larva/GKo2FIew">larval</a> form. For copepods, the egg hatches into a <a href="/facts/Crustacean_larvae/Rnj4CHHf">nauplius</a> form, with a head and a tail but no true thorax or abdomen. The larva molts several times until it resembles the adult and then, after more molts, achieves adult development. The nauplius form is so different from the adult form that it was once thought to be a separate species. The metamorphosis had, until 1832, led to copepods being misidentified as <a href="/facts/Zoophyte/tL0fXgKY">zoophytes</a> or <a href="/facts/Insect/IgDNvnUL">insects</a> (albeit aquatic ones), or, for parasitic copepods, 'fish <a href="/facts/Lice/xuKMIK5M">lice</a>'.
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Copepod open-in-new

Copepod