''Neocalanus'' is a genus of marine

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have p ...

s. They are a dominant component of the open water ecosystems of the northern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

. ''Neocalanus'' are large copepods, reaching body lengths (i.e., prosome length) of more than in ''Neocalanus plumchrus''.

Species

There are six species:

Life cycle

''Neocalanus flemingeri''

''Neocalanus flemingeri'' is predominantly annual, with a significant fraction of

biennial Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...

s in some areas. The largest females reach prosome length of about ; males are smaller.

Trophic interactions

''Neocalanus'' are important food items for many predators, such as

North Pacific right whale The North Pacific right whale (''Eubalaena japonica'') is a very large, thickset baleen whale species that is extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific population, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, may ...

and

least auklet The least auklet (''Aethia pusilla'') is a seabird and the smallest species of auk. It is the most abundant seabird in North America, and one of the most abundant in the world, with a population of around nine million birds. They breed on the i ...

References

Calanoida Crustacean genera Taxa named by Georg Ossian Sars {{copepod-stub