Themisto gaudichaudii
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| Guérin-Méneville , 1825 |
Themisto gaudichaudii is a marine flea shrimp from the suborder Hyperiidea . All species of the Hyperiidea live in the zooplankton of the seas. However, while most of the species in this group are associated with other plankton animals - such as salps or jellyfish - and sometimes parasitize on them , Themisto gaudichaudii is predatory in search of food.
features
As an adaptation to the predatory way of life in the plankton, the physique of Themisto gaudichaudii is streamlined and much slimmer than that of its often spherical relatives within the family Hyperiidae , which also includes the jellyfish .
Themisto gaudichaudii becomes 12 to 21 millimeters long and about a year old. Specimens that survive for more than a year can reach a length of up to 28 millimeters. Despite its elongated physique, this member of the Hyperiidae also has a large head with huge eyes.
habitat
Themisto gaudichaudii lives in the Southern Ocean - from Antarctica to the shelf regions of the southern continents. The concept of a bipolar distribution of the populations , according to which T. gaudichaudii was also assigned a distribution area in the Arctic Ocean, had to be abandoned after genetic studies. The species of the genus Themisto native to the Arctic is T. compressa . More in the North Atlantic widespread Themisto styles are T. abyssorum and T. libellula .
Way of life
Themisto gaudichaudii is an insatiable hunter who hunts for all animals in the plankton that are no larger than himself. It occurs in schools with a large number of individuals and often forms the third most common group of animals in the plankton of the Southern Ocean after copepods and krill . The copepods are also its main source of food, even if it also catches the fish larvae, arrowworms , plankton-like snails from the gymnosomata group or young krill that occur in the plankton .
Themisto gaudichaudii plays an important role in the food chain as it is, in turn, one of the main sources of food for many animals. Predators , mainly from the subordination of the Antarctic fish , rock and macaroni penguins and diving petrel and many other sea birds feed on this amphipod.
literature
- R. Schneppenheim, R. Weigmann-Haass: Morphological and electrophoretic studies of the genus Themisto (Amphipoda: Hyperiidea) from the South and North Atlantic . In: Polar Biology . tape 6 , no. 4 . Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 1986, p. 215-225 .