Featured Microscopist: Wim van Egmond

Copepod

Copepod

Copepods feed upon an array of microscopic organisms and some species prey upon creatures as large as themselves. Their first pair of trunk limbs, called the maxillipeds, plays a central role in the process of food collection. These structures are followed by four pairs of swimming legs and sometimes a fifth pair of greatly modified legs utilized for reproductive purposes. Through the use of the swimming legs and beating antennae, free-swimming copepods may move easily about their environments. When present in lakes or deep ponds, the organisms often travel from location to location in a periodic cycle of vertical migrations.


Photomicrographs are © 2000-2022 by Wim van Egmond.
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