Zooplankton biomass is essential for understanding the quantitative structure of lake food webs and for the functional assessment of biotic interactions. In this study, we aimed to propose a biomass (dry weight) estimation method using the body length of cyclopoid copepods. These copepods play an important role as omnivores in lake zooplankton communities and contribute significantly to biomass. We validated several previously proposed estimation equations against direct measurements and compared the suitability of prosomal length versus total length of copepods to suggest a more appropriate estimation equation. After comparing the regression analysis results of various candidate equations with the actual values measured on a microbalance-using the coefficient of variation, mean absolute error, and coefficient of determination-it was determined that the Total Length-DW exponential regression equation [W=0.7775×e2.0183L; W (μg), L (mm)] could be used to calculate biomass with higher accuracy. However, considering practical issues such as the morphological similarity between species and genera of copepods and the limitations of classifying copepodid stages, we derived a general regression equation for the pooled copepod community rather than a species-specific regression equation.

Two species of the minuta-subgroup within the oncaeid copepod genus Triconia Böttger-Schnack, 1999 collected in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are newly recorded. A female T. minuta (Giesbrecht, 1893 [“1892”]) and both male and female T. umerus (Böttger-Schnack and Boxshall, 1990) from the northeast equatorial Pacific are redescribed with the comparison of its morphological details, which differs from previous studies, in terms of the larger body size, the length to width ratio of the genital double-somite, the relative length of the outer basal seta on P5, and the ornamentation of the appendages. The characters, which are used for identification, such as the length ratio of the outer subdistal and outer spine versus the distal spine on P3-P4, and the outer spine length of the middle exopodal segment on P3 and P4 are reported for the first time. Information on the variations in the endopodal spine lengths of swimming legs 2-4 is also provided for T. minuta and T. umerus, with the summary of the wide zoogeographical distribution of these two species.