''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 (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

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 Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. ''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 biennials 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.

References

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