What is "chirocephalus diaphanus"

Fairy \Fair"y\, a.

1. Of or pertaining to fairies.

2. Given by fairies; as, fairy money.
   --Dryden.

   Fairy bird (Zo["o]l.), the Euoropean little tern ( Sterna minuta); -- called also sea swallow, and hooded tern.

   Fairy bluebird. (Zo["o]l.) See under Bluebird.

   Fairy martin (Zo["o]l.), a European swallow ( Hirrundo ariel) that builds flask-shaped nests of mud on overhanging cliffs.

   Fairy rings or Fairy circles, the circles formed in grassy lawns by certain fungi (as Marasmius Oreades), formerly supposed to be caused by fairies in their midnight dances; also, the mushrooms themselves. Such circles may have diameters larger than three meters.

   Fairy shrimp (Zo["o]l.), a European fresh-water phyllopod crustacean ( Chirocephalus diaphanus); -- so called from its delicate colors, transparency, and graceful motions. The name is sometimes applied to similar American species.

   Fairy stone (Paleon.), an echinite.

Chirocephalus diaphanus is a widely distributed European species of fairy shrimp that lives as far north as Great Britain, where it is the only surviving species of fairy shrimp and is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is a translucent animal, about long, with reddened tips to the abdomen and appendages. The body comprises a head, a thorax bearing 11 pairs of appendages, and a seven-segmented abdomen. In males, the antennae are enlarged to form "frontal appendages", while females have an egg pouch at the end of the thorax.

The life cycle of C. diaphanus is extremely fast, and the species can only persist in pools without predators. The eggs tolerate drying out, and hatch when re-immersed in water. C. diaphanus was first reported in the scientific literature in 1704, but was only separated from other species and given its scientific name in 1803. The specific epithet diaphanus refers to the animal's transparency.