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MESOCYCLOPS,
SARS, 1914
First
antenna with 17 segments reaching beyond the cephalothorax. Last segment of
fifth leg of female with 2 long setae. Inner setae on caudal branch more than
twice as long as outer setae. Last segment of fifth leg of female with one
terminal seta and one seta on the inner margin. First antenna with hyaline plate
on last segment. Planktonic. Copepodits feeds mainly on zooplankton (calanoids,
cladocerans and rotifers) and phytoplankton, when the phytoplankton is abundant.
Some
species are known as predators on smaller freshwater animals, such as mosquito
larvae, cladocerans, rotifers and other copepods.
See
Ueda & Reid (2003a) for at comprehensive key of the genus.
The following key is a combination of records from the Philippines and records
from South-East Asia outside Philippines. Of the 4 Philippine records of
Mesocyclops species (M. leuckarti, M. aspericornis, M. microlasius, and M. ogunnus) the
records of M.
leuckarti has to be revised. The species is now confined to the Palaearctic area
and records from the tropics are no longer valid. It is the hope that the
expanded key, with some selected candidate species, can help in identification
of "M. leuckarti" [1928a,
1930a,1941,1978a+b]. See Ueda and Reid's (2003a) key for Mesocyclops
of the world.
129 a.
Inner
portion of basipodite of 1st leg with seta.
Distributed in Africa and India. No records from Philippines..................................................141.
129 b. Inner
portion of basipodite of 1st leg without seta..........130.
130 a. No patterns of hairs
on body surface (Without patterns
of hair on 5th segment and caudal rami without hairs)......................................................131.
130 b. Body with patterns of hair..................................134.
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131a