Growth, Reproduction, Respiration and Carbon Utilization of the Sand-Dwelling Harpacticoid Copepod, Asellopsis Intermedia

Abstract

The copepod Asellopsis intermedia (T. Scott) is a conspicuous member of the meiobenthos in sand on a small exposed beach at Firemore, in Loch Ewe, Scotland, and is the only species of this genus so far recorded interridally from the area. Length of adults does not exceed 0.65 mm in females and 0.55 mm in males. Although it lives below the sand surface, it is not an interstitial form since it burrows by displacing the sand grains rather than by moving freely in the interstitial spaces.