Free-Swimming Copepod Nauplii of Narragansett Bay with a Key to Their Identification

Abstract

Zooplankton surface samples were taken with a number 12 silk bolting cloth net towed by a Clark-Bumpus quantitative plankton sampler in Narragansett Bay for 12 months. The samples were collected twice weekly, except during December, January, and February, at night at one position in the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. Ten calanoid, three cyclopoid, and one harpacticoid species of free-swimming copepod nauplii were collected from July 1957 through June 1958. The structure and arrangement of elements of the caudal armatures of these copepod nauplii showed certain differences which were utilized to develop a key.