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}]

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}]