New record of Acartia (Acartiella) faoensis Khalaf, 1991 (Copepoda: Calanoida: Acartidae) from Iranian waters of NW Persian Gulf

In our ecological study on Planktonic copepods of Bahrakan waters in August 2010, (Hendijan Harbor- NW Persian Gulf- Iran) a copepod species, Acartia (Acartiella) faoensis Khalaf, 1991 was collected. This current report is the first record of this species in Iranian waters of NW Persian Gulf. A. faoensis is a calanoid copepod which belongs to the family Acartidae. This species was first reported from Khor Al-Zubair and Khor Abdulla, Iraq (Khalaf, 1991) which after was found in coastal waters of Bubiyan Island in North of Kuwait (Ali et al., 2009; AL-Yamani et al., 2011). Therefore, this is the fourth report of A. faoensis in region. This finding can increase the probability of the idea that this species is endemic to NW Persian Gulf. Copepods are the largest subclass of crustaceans and currently, more than 12000 live species have been identified (Brusca and Brusca, 2003). There are 10 orders of copepods. The orders with most planktonic species are Calanoida, Cyclopoida, Poecilostomatoida and Harpacticoida. These four orders are usually found in most aquatic ecosystems (Conway et al., 2003). Copepods have a key role in marine food web (Turner, 2004) and they play an important role in energy transfer in marine systems (Frangouils et al., 2005). Up to present, nearly 40 species of Calanoid Copepods have been identified in the Persian Gulf waters (Al-Khabbaz and Fahmi, 1994; Al-Yamani and Prosuva, 2003; Al-Yamani et al.2011). Subgenus Acartiella belongs to the family Acartidae and currently six species of this genus were identified from Indian’s estuaries and brackish waters (Pillai, 1971).