water flea

2 definitions found

water flea - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Water flea \Wa"ter flea`\ (Zool.)
     Any one of numerous species of small aquatic Entomostraca
     belonging to the genera Cyclops, Daphnia, etc; -- so
     called because they swim with sudden leaps, or starts.
     [1913 Webster]

water flea - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  water flea
      n 1: 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
           [syn: cyclops, water flea]
      2: minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in
         a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of
         hairy branched antennae [syn: daphnia, water flea]