The genus Centropages is a member of the family Centropagidae within the order Calanoida. This planktonic copepod family is common and widespread globally, inhabiting all oceans, in coastal, neritic and offshore waters. They are predominantly found in the epipelagic zone, spanning a wide latitudinal range in both hemispheres, but they can also be found in the mesopelagic zone. The genus Centropages is characterized by medium sized individuals, with females typically averaging 1.5 mm in length and males slightly smaller. Of the 35 species identified worldwide, 17 species of Centropages have been documented in the ICES area, the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Their geographical distributions are detailed accordingly.This Leaflet is an update of Plankton Identification Leaflet 11 (G.P. Farran, 1948) in which 5 species were included. This new leaflet includes 17 species and is based on the Vervoort (1964) classification and the key taxonomic diagnosis based in Bradford-Grieve et al. (1999), Vives and Shmeleva (2007), Gubanova et al. (2014) and the website on marine planktonic copepods by Razouls et al. (2002–2025). |
