Development time of harpacticoid copepods: some empirical models and implications

Some meiobenthic harpacticoid copepod species cannot be successfully cultured, therefore empirical models were developed to estimate their development times, using literature data, but taking into consideration several empirical rules previously formulated to model the development of planktonic copepods. The present models demonstrated the overwhelming influence of rearing temperature on egg development time, and of body length on total development time and indicate a capacity to adapt development rates to environmental temperature.