On the relation of structure, perception and activity in marine planktonic copepods

The goal of this paper is to illustrate how in juvenile and adult subtropical marine planktonic copepods various structures or morphological features function in concert to detect prey and predators. Without motion by either food (e.g. flagellate, ciliate) or feeder (e.g. feeding current) or both (e.g. Acartia spp. and ciliate) few feeding activities will occur. Through motion a food particle is either perceived mechanically or chemically to be followed by appendage activities. A combination of mechano- and chemosensors on their cephalic appendages (and probably on other extremities) serve juvenile and adult copepods to perceive signals. Perception is followed by alternation of motion and sensing by these appendages, or by no motion at all (e.g. behavior by Eucalanus pileatus when perceiving a weak hydrodynamic signal). Non-moving and extended sensors (setae) are best suited for mechanical/hydrodynamic perceptions in those copepods which lack a feeding current and hardly move. Numerous mechanosensors arranged in three dimensions on the first antennae (A1) are required to perceive the precise location of moving prey at a distance (e.g. Oithona feeding on ciliates but also sinking particles). Those copepods which create a weak or intermittent feeding current can supplement nutrition with carnivory, which requires perception by the A1 (e.g. Centropages velificatus adults). These two groups require, in addition to perception of prey motion/location, rapid motion by their appendages (A1, second maxillae M2, etc.) to capture the prey. Nauplii, which satiate at far lower food levels than adults, have one of several means of food acquisition: encounter through forward motion, perception through feeding current, or perception of a moving food particle. The nearly continuous motion of most calanoid nauplii makes them vulnerable to predation because all three pairs of appendages are usually moving. Opposite are nauplii of cyclopoid and a few calanoid species which move only occasionally. Copepodid stages and adults use non-moving and often extended setae on the tips of their A1 to perceive predators at a distance. This structure and their pronounced escape motion may reduce their vulnerability to predation as compared to nauplii.