''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a

calanoid Calanoida is an order of copepods, a group of arthropods commonly found as zooplankton. The order includes around 46 families with about 1800 species of both marine and freshwater copepods between them. Description Calanoids can be distinguish ...

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

zooplankton native to the

Laurentian Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lake ...

and their basin.

Distribution

''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a zooplankton species widely distributed across Canada and the northern half of the United States in large deep lakes. It occurs in all the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Morphology

Adult females of ''L. ashlandi'' can be distinguished by their two-segmented urosome and asymmetrical, rounded metasomal wings. Males are characterized by a large lateral spine on leg 5, located in the proximal third of the terminal segment, and by the presence of a slender process on the third segment from the distal end of the right antennule. This species is morphologically similar to other leptodiaptomids ('' Leptodiaptomus minutus'', '' L. sicilis'') and skistodiaptomids ('' Skistodiaptomus oregonensis'').

Ecology

''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' are known prey items for a number of native and non-native Great Lakes fishes. They are also prey items for other invertebrate zooplankton. Remains have been found within gut-contents of ''

Mysis diluviana ''Mysis diluviana'' is a mysid crustacean (opossum shrimp) found in freshwater lakes of northern North America. Appearance ''Mysis'' is a small, transparent shrimp-like crustacean, less than in length. It has two pairs of relatively long anten ...

'' and are trophically below ''

Limnocalanus macrurus ''Limnocalanus macrurus'' is a species of crustacean belonging to the family Centropagidae Centropagidae is a family of copepods in the order Calanoida. Its members are particularly known as plankton in coastal waters and in fresh water in ...

''.Doubek, J. P. & Lehman, J. T. (2014). Historical trophic position of ''Limnocalanus macrurus'' in Lake Michigan, ''Journal of Great Lakes Research'', 40(4): 1027–1032,

References

Diaptomidae Freshwater crustaceans of North America Crustaceans described in 1893 {{copepod-stub