A list and identification key for the freshwater, free-living copepods of Florida (USA)

We present an inventory of the free-living freshwater copepod crustaceans recorded from the state of Florida, U.S.A. The list is based on previously published information and on new data collected during recent research on surface- and groundwater-dwelling copepods in Everglades National Park, and a few collections in temporary and permanent surface waterbodies elsewhere in the state. We provide information on the ecology and taxonomy of some of the species, and a key for the identification of all the taxa. A total of 65 taxa of free-living copepods: 9 calanoids, 41 cyclopoids, and 15 harpacticoids are now known from the peninsula. Forty-four of these are known from Everglades National Park and adjacent areas; we add four species to a previous checklist for this region. The historically more intensive sampling here has resulted in the discovery of five new named taxa and six that remain in open nomenclature, 10 of which have so far been found only in the Everglades. Of the species collected so far in central and northern Florida, two calanoids and one cyclopoid have been found only in the state so far, whereas all the others are widespread in North America and beyond. Among the predominant North American fauna is a small neotropical component consisting of one calanoid, six cyclopoids, and five harpacticoids. One cyclopoid species is considered to be introduced.