EVALUATION OF INTEGUMENTAL PORE SIGNATURES OF SPECIES OF CALANOID COPEPODS (CRUSTACEA) FOR INTERPRETING INTERSPECIES RELATIONSHIPS

The pore signature of calanoid copepods is of increasing interest in p hylogenetic studies. Some recent studies have been restricted to the u rosome on the assumption that most of the species components reside th ere. The present paper tests that assumption in eight species of the g enus Pleuromamma by assessing the signatures of the cephalosome, metas ome and urosome separately in each species. Most of the species-specif ic information is in the urosome, but a significant proportion also re sides in the cephalosome and a lesser component in the metasome. Group ing of the species relative to their pore signatures conformed with th at derived from conventional morphological characters in the genus Ple uromamma, as previously demonstrated in a very different calanoid genu s, Eucalanus. Thus, the urosomal signature is confirmed as a convenien t and quick tool for phylogenetic studies. Six of the species examined in the present study were collected in the northeastern Atlantic betw een 1973 and 1976. The remaining two were collected from the western P acific Ocean and the western Indian Ocean in 1993 and 1976, respective ly.