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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Water flea

Water flea \Wa"ter flea`\ (Zo["o]l.) 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.

Wiktionary
water flea

n. Any of various aquatic crustacea of the order Cladocera, characterised by their jumping or jerky mode of swimming.

WordNet
water flea
  1. n. 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]

  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]

Usage examples of "water flea".

Their plankton includes forms very like Cyclops and the water flea.