(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.water flea
(n)minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae, Syn.water flea
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English (GCIDE) v.0.53Collaborative International Dictionary (GCIDE)
(Zool.) 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. [ 1913 Webster ]