Aglaodiaptomus is a genus of copepod

Copepod

Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...

s in the family Diaptomidae

Diaptomidae

Diaptomidae is a family of freshwater pelagic copepods. It includes around 50 genera:*Acanthodiaptomus Kiefer, 1932*Aglaodiaptomus Light, 1938*Allodiaptomus Kiefer, 1936*Arctodiaptomus Kiefer, 1932*Argyrodiaptomus Brehm, 1933...

. They are often bright red or blue due to carotenoid

Carotenoid

Carotenoids are tetraterpenoid organic pigments that are naturally occurring in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthetic organisms like algae, some bacteria, and some types of fungus. Carotenoids can be synthesized fats and other basic organic metabolic building...

 pigment

Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...

s.

Conservation status

Species distributions are known very imprecisely, and two species are listed as vulnerable species

Vulnerable species

On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...

 on the IUCN Red List

IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...

 (marked VU below); both are endemic to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. A. kingsburyae was described from "a roadside ditch in Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 and a pool and a pond in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

", while A. marshianus was described from Lake Jackson

Lake Jackson (Tallahassee, Florida)

Lake Jackson is a shallow, prairie lake on the north side of Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida with two major depressions or sinkholes known as Porter Sink and Lime Sink....

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

Species

The genus Aglaodiaptomus contains 15 species.

• Aglaodiaptomus atomicus DeBiase & Taylor, 1997
• Aglaodiaptomus clavipes (Schacht, 1897)
• Aglaodiaptomus clavipoides M. S. Wilson, 1955
• Aglaodiaptomus conipedatus (Marsh, 1907)
• Aglaodiaptomus dilobatus M. S. Wilson, 1958
• Aglaodiaptomus forbesi Light, 1938
• Aglaodiaptomus kingsburyae A. Robertson, 1975 
• Aglaodiaptomus leptopus (S. A. Forbes, 1882)
• Aglaodiaptomus lintoni (S. A. Forbes, 1893)
• Aglaodiaptomus marshianus M. S. Wilson, 1953 
• Aglaodiaptomus pseudosanguineus (Turner, 1921)
• Aglaodiaptomus saskatchewanensis M. S. Wilson, 1958
• Aglaodiaptomus savagei DeBiase & Taylor, 2000
• Aglaodiaptomus spatulocrenatus (Pearse, 1906)
• Aglaodiaptomus stagnalis (S. A. Forbes, 1882)