Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun water_flea

2 senses of water flea

Sense 1
cyclops, water flea -- (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)
       => copepod, copepod crustacean -- (minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish)

Sense 2
daphnia, water flea -- (minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae)
       => branchiopod crustacean, branchiopod, branchiopodan -- (aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding)