SREL Reprint #1784

New occurrences of Eurytemora affinis and Epischura fluviatilis, freshwater calanoid copepod species of the family Temoridae, in South Carolina

Adrienne E. DeBiase and Barbara E. Taylor 

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29802 

Abstract: In a 1990 survey of calanoid copepods of the Savannah River Site on the upper coastal plain of South Carolina, two members of the family Temoridae, Eurytemora affinis and Epischura fluviatilis, were collected from large (>65 ha) reservoirs. Neither species occurred in small (< 5 ha) man-made ponds nor in Carolina bays and other natural wetland ponds. Neither species was reported from extensive studies on the large reservoirs in the mid-1980s, although Eurytemora affinis appeared in 1987 in a 2-yr-old reservoir. Eurytemora affinis is a widely distributed coastal species. Epischura fluviatilis has rarely been reported, and its distribution is poorly known. The appearance of these two species on the Savannah River Site, and perhaps in inland South Carolina more generally, may be associated with the construction of reservoirs, which provide a kind of aquatic habitat that did not exist in this region before the mid-20th century.

SREL Reprint #1784

DeBiase, A.E. and B.E. Taylor. 1993. New occurrences of Eurytemora affinis and Epischura fluviatilis, freshwater calanoid copepod species of the family Temoridae, in South Carolina. The American Midland Naturalist 130:386-392.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).