''Leptodiaptomus sicilis'' 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 distinguis ...

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) ...

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 its basin.

Distribution

The species is found all over North America, north of Missouri, in fresh and saline waters. It is found in all the Great Lakes but is most abundant in Lake Superior.

Morphology

''Leptodiaptomus sicilis'' adult females are distinguished by their three-segmented urosome; pointed, triangular metasomal wings with minute sensilla; and the genital segment without obvious lateral projections. In the mature male, the right exopod lateral spine of leg 5 is located in the middle of the segment, is quite long, and projects almost perpendicularly to the segment. In addition, the projections on the left exopod terminal segment are short, blunt, and well-separated. The right antennule on the male has a long, slender process coming off the terminal end of the third segment from the distal end and the metasomal wings are expanded and triangular in shape. These species are physically similar to other leptodiaptomids (''

Leptodiaptomus ashlandi ''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a calanoid copepod zooplankton native to the Laurentian Great Lakes and their basin. Distribution ''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a zooplankton species widely distributed across Canada and the northern half of the U ...

'', ''

Leptodiaptomus minutus ''Leptodiaptomus ashlandi'' is a calanoid 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), ...

'' and skistodiaptomids ('' Skistodiaptomus oregonensis'').

Ecology

''Leptodiaptomus sicilis'' 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'' and are trophically below ''Limnocalanus macrurus'' while also primarily a herbivore.Nasworthy, K. C., Scofield, A. E., & Rudstam, L. G. (2019). Feeding ecology of Limnocalanus macrurus in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6553150 Diaptomidae Freshwater crustaceans of North America Crustaceans described in 1882 Taxa named by Stephen Alfred Forbes