Evaluation of integumental pore signatures of species of calanoid copepods (Crustacea) for interpreting inter-species relationships

The pore signature of calanoid copepods is of increasing interest in phylogenetic studies. Some recent studies have been restricted to the urosome on the assumption that most of the species components reside there. The present paper tests that assumption in eight species of the genus Pleuromamma by assessing the signatures of the cephalosome, metasome and urosome separately in each species. Most of the species-specific information is in the urosome, but a significant proportion also resides in the cephalosome and a lesser component in the metasome. Grouping of the species relative to their pore signatures conformed with that derived from conventional morphological characters in the genus Pleuromamma, as previously demonstrated in a very different calanoid genus, Eucalanus. Thus, the urosomal signature is confirmed as a convenient and quick tool for phylogenetic studies. Six of the species examined in the present study were collected in the northeastern Atlantic between 1973 and 1976. The remaining two were collected from the western Pacific Ocean and the western Indian Ocean in 1993 and 1976, respectively.