DEVELOPMENT AND LIPID-COMPOSITION OF THE HARPACTICOID COPEPOD NITOCRASPINIPES REARED ON DIFFERENT DIETS

We reared the harpacticoid copepod Nitocra spinipes on diets of bacter ia, a diatom, or a macroalga, evaluating survivorship and growth in sh ort-term (less than or equal to 1 generation) experiments. Lipid conte nt of the copepods and their diets was measured and used as an index o f nutrition. Although growth, survivorship and lipid content of N. spi nipes were significantly greater when fed the diatom, which had the hi ghest Lipid content of the 3 diets, the copepod was able to develop fr om egg to adult when fed a lipid-poor bacterial diet. Furthermore, thi s species was able to go through developmental molts without the addit ion of food (6 individuals from a starved cohort of 25 made it to at l east copepodite stage I), suggesting the uptake of dissolved organic m atter for growth. This widespread estuarine benthic copepod apparently has the ability to survive on diverse and nutritionally poor diets, a quality that is useful in a variable, detritus-dominated environment.