water flea

water flea

n.

Any of various small aquatic crustaceans of the order Cladocera, especially the daphnid, that typically swim with jerking flealike motions.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	water flea - minute free-swimming freshwater copepod having a large median eye and pear-shaped body and long antennae used in swimming; important in some food chains and as intermediate hosts of parasitic worms that affect man e.g. Guinea worms cyclops copepod, copepod crustacean - minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish genus Cyclops - copepod water fleas
	2.	water flea - minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae daphnia branchiopod, branchiopod crustacean, branchiopodan - aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding genus Daphnia - water fleas