BIOLOGY

Branchiopods

rare crustaceans of Serbia and Montenegro

by: Dragana Miličić

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On 346 crustacean species live in Serbia and Montenegro, and 51 species live only in our country and nowhere in the world. Some of them look very unusual, so if we didn’t know we would never guess that they belong to crustaceans. Such are branchiopods – small creatures that live in ponds.

Ponds are not the best place for living. They usually have a plenty of food, but they lack in oxygen. Moreover, ponds can dry up quickly. It is a big problem to the pond’s habitants. So how can one survive in such hostile place?

Branchiopods solve such situation in a very original way – they breathe and take food using a great number of leaf-like legs.

Branchiopod’s legs have many bristles which retain small particles of food from the water.
Their females lay a number of eggs that sink to the pond’s bottom.

When ponds dry up, eggs stay in dried soil. They can survive for long periods of drought, even for twenty or more years until the new pond is formed again.