''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a

calanoid Calanoida is an order of copepods, a group of arthropods commonly found as zooplankton. The order includes around 46 families with about 1800 species of both marine and freshwater copepods between them. Description Calanoids can be distinguish ...

copepod Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

zooplankton native to the

Laurentian Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario (though hydrologic ...

and their basin.

Distribution

''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a zooplankton species widely distributed across Canada and the northern half of the United States in large deep lakes. It occurs in all the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

Morphology

Adult females of ''L. ashlandi'' can be distinguished by their two-segmented urosome and asymmetrical, rounded metasomal wings. Males are characterized by a large lateral spine on leg 5, located in the proximal third of the terminal segment, and by the presence of a slender process on the third segment from the distal end of the right antennule. This species is morphologically similar to other leptodiaptomids ('' Leptodiaptomus minutus'', '' L. sicilis'') and skistodiaptomids ('' Skistodiaptomus oregonensis'').

Ecology

''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' are known prey items for a number of native and non-native Great Lakes fishes. They are also prey items for other invertebrate zooplankton. Remains have been found within gut-contents of ''

Mysis diluviana ''Mysis'' is a genus of mysid crustaceans in the family Mysidae, distributed mainly in the coastal zone of the Arctic and high boreal seas. Several species also inhabit northern freshwater lakes and the brackish Caspian Sea. Fifteen species are ...

'' and are trophically below '' Limnocalanus macrurus''.Doubek, J. P. & Lehman, J. T. (2014). Historical trophic position of ''Limnocalanus macrurus'' in Lake Michigan, ''Journal of Great Lakes Research'', 40(4): 1027–1032,

References

Diaptomidae Freshwater crustaceans of North America Crustaceans described in 1893 {{copepod-stub