water flea Meaning, Definition & Usage
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noun 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.
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noun minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae
daphnia.
WordNet
Wa"ter flea`
Definitions
(Zoöl.) 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.
