''Temora longicornis'' is a species of

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 (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

in the family

Temoridae Temoridae is a family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its mem ...

. It is found in marine environments on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Distribution and habitat

In North America this copepod occurs between Cape Cod and Florida. In some years it is the commonest

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 distinguis ...

in the winter and spring in the mid-Atlantic region, and sometimes also in summer and autumn in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

. It tends to be less abundant in estuaries than in open stretches of coast.

Ecology

''Temora longicornis'' makes daily vertical migrations, spending the day near the seabed and the night near the surface. Males can swim faster than females, and 3D tracking has shown that males can follow a detectable trail left by females. Sometimes they follow it in the wrong direction. This copepod is an

omnivore An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutr ...

;

diatom A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...

s are a major part of the diet and

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

is also grazed. This copepod is

preyed Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...

on heavily by the

sand lance A sand lance or sandlance is a fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lances are commonly known as "sand eels", though they are not related to true eels. Another variant name is launce, and all names of the fish are ...

in the northwestern Atlantic. It also forms an important part of the diet of the

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

(''Clupea harengus'') and sprat (''Sprattus sprattus'') in the southern Baltic Sea in the autumn, at which time the copepods are particularly plentiful. This species' eggs float near the surface before they hatch and the developing larvae move deeper into the water column at each successive moult. The species has been shown to sometimes produce diapausing eggs in the summer months of June and July in

. When this happens, it results in a reduction in the quantity of zooplankton at that time of year. The eggs are buried in the sediment for a species-specific length of time and then hatch, moving into the water column as nauplius larvae as they develop. In the North Sea, dormancy takes place in winter.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6554446 Temoridae Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1785 Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller