Swimming, feeding and mating behaviour in copepods – A brief review

Animal behavior is an important aspect for the knowledge of the ecological role of a species: it permits to understand the interactions between individuals, and on a larger scale on population dynamics. Copepod behavior occurs at very different scales, ranging from millimeters to tens of meters and over time spans ranging from milliseconds to hours. In the first case, events such as food encounter, creation of feeding currents and escape responses develop over very short times (milliseconds to seconds) and occur over a few millimeters or less. On the opposite extreme large scale processes like vertical migrations take place. At intermediate scales (minutes and centimeters), it is possible to obtain information on how an individual copepod moves during longer periods while feeding or how its behavior is modified in relation to unfavorable environmental conditions or to chemical or mechanical stimuli. In this contribution, we review the most critical aspects of copepod behavior, with a peculiar emphasis on the swimming, feeding and mating behavioral adaptations of these organisms, which, despite the small dimensions, display a great repertoire of modalities of interaction with the surrounding environment.