CURRENT TAXONOMY OF MARINE AND BRACKISH P LANKTONIC COPEPODS

The total number of marine and brackish planktonic species of copepods is evaluated at about 1950, belonging to 9 of the 10 sub-classes of C opepoda. Only the Gellelyoida, which are fresh-water and underground f orms are not considered. These species are distributed over 59 familie s and 253 genera. According to the genera number distribution in famil ies, 2 families yield the largest generic radiation: the Aetideidae an d the Scolecitrichidae, with a dominance of mesopelagic and bathypelag ic species. 63% of families have a restricted number of genera (1 to 3 ), some belonging to orders having their full expansion in the benthos . The families with epipelagic forms and those with herbivorous and om nivorous characters are weakly diversified in contrast to carnivorous forms. Sex-ratio analyses based on the number of individuals in sample s indicate a strong dominance of females; one has to take into account , however, that both males and females are described for 67% of the to tal number of species, 28% is exclusively based on females and 5% on m ales.