First record of the Marine Calanoid Copepod Pseudodiaptomus c.f. ardjuna from Shatt Al-Arab River, Iraq

Abstract

The marine calanoid copepod Pseudodiaptomus c.f. ardjuna (Brehm, 1953) was recorded from some freshwater habitats in some regions of the Shatt A-Arab River during March – July 2009. These regions include Al-Kurnish area, Al-Sindebad Island during April-August 2009 and at Al-Gurna city on March 2009 only. The species is briefly described in this work and its morphological characters are compared with earlier descriptions from Iraqi coastal water, like the total length of female and male, body shape, female genital segment, the shape of the male posterior prosomal segment and number of the setae of the furcal rami.