Longipedia

Longipedia is a genus of marine copepods of the family Longipediidae, order Canuelloida. The genus Longipedia comprises 23 accepted species and is distributed worldwide. The Longipediidae generally are long and missile shaped, with segmented bodies covered by hard chitin. Longipedia utilize thoracopods to move, pulling themselves through the water. Distinctive features of Longipedia species are an elongated P2 endopod; and a tooth on the P2 endopod third segment. Identification and differentiation between Longipedia species can be difficult due to morphological similarities among species. rdf:langString