Viability of subitaneous copepod eggs following fish predation on egg-carrying calanoids

Abstract

The viability of subitaneous eggs of the egg-carrying calanoid copepod Eurytemora herdmani was examined following fish ingestion and evacuation. More than 90% of the copepod embryos recovered intact in the fecal material of Atlantic silversides Menidia menidia hatched within 3 d of incubation at 12 degree C in both light/dark and completely dark regimes. Percentage hatch was comparable to that for uningested embryos removed from eggsacs and for uningested embryos within eggsacs both attached to, and excised from, maternal copepods. For E. herdmani , selective silverside predation on ovigerous females is countered by the capacity of their subitaneous eggs to resist digestion