Copepods from the species Acartia tonsa, like other 41 members of Calanoida order, have the unique ability to induce quiescence in different stages during their lifetime if adverse environmental conditions occur. Here I assembled a de novo transcriptome for subitaneous and quiescent embryonic development to reconstruct the molecular processes occurring in the embryogenesis. This dataset provides a better understanding of A. tonsa embryonic development and the molecular mechanisms underlying quiescence. Overall design: Differential expression analysis for RNA-seq data from an assemblage of eggs of Acartia tonsa. With six timepoints (3, 7, 14, 24 and 42 hours subitaneous development and 26 hours quiescent development) and 3-5 technical replicates per timepoint