Sapphirina - BugGuide.Net

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Photo#1100631

Copyright © 2015 Aaron Hunt

Sapphirina -

Block Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, USA
July 12, 2015
Size: ~3mm

Thought I'd share this with everyone before I whisk it away to its new guide page. Identifying this took me a while. Over the last few days they've become abundant in the water at the beach. We've been having a bloom of salps and copepods, including these, which are now easily visible in the waves as sparkling blue disks. This represents a new crustacean order for BugGuide and a new sort of incredible iridescent arthropod for this site's collection. Apparently only the males shine like this.

Contributed by Aaron Hunt on 12 July, 2015 - 5:34pm
Last updated 4 May, 2016 - 12:02am

Moved

Moved from Sapphirinidae.

… Aaron Hunt, 18 April, 2016 - 5:07pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Aaron Hunt, 12 July, 2015 - 11:19pm

cool thing

Don't see many copepods around here. Very abundant and very diverse, just too tiny for most, I think; I only ever seem to photograph them accidentally when pointing my camera at some larger crustacean. Didn't know that there were iridescent ones, though.

… Chris Mallory, 12 July, 2015 - 6:02pm

I had no idea either

My first guess for this one was isopod but after I saw some appendages under the microscope I realized it had to be a copepod. I personally am just aiming to find all the local copepod orders, not even bothering with families for now. As you said, they're just so diverse and tiny.

… Aaron Hunt, 12 July, 2015 - 6:20pm

Thanks

It's beautiful. They reflect light? Also thanks for bringing the fact that Bugguide covers crustaceans to my attention - didn't even know that!

… Sara A. Tangren, 12 July, 2015 - 5:46pm

Indeed

BugGuide currently covers freshwater and intertidal Arthropoda as well as terrestrial ones. There are some studies on how these creatures refract light. I haven't yet looked at them much but I know it has to do with tiny hexagonal structures on them.

… Aaron Hunt, 12 July, 2015 - 6:18pm

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