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Glite Dictionary
water flea

water flea

1 4.9
A very small fresh water animal with a rounded body that lives in ponds and many fish eat
  • noun
  • /ˈwɔːtər fliː/
translation icon : pulga de agua
  • water flea (Daphnia)

Examples

  • I gave him some freeze-dried water fleas, but he's gotta wanna live.

    Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)

  • I am here to study brine shrimp, which are not closely related to true shrimp but instead are Branchiopoda, a specialized branch of Crustacea that also includes water fleas.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The proPO cascade, stepped up when an infection is recognized, is characteristic of defense systems that occur in such diverse invertebrate organisms as butterflies, starfish, and water fleas.

    Academic text (2003)

  • In a healthy pond, the water flea is a crucial source of food for small fish.

  • The water flea plays an important role in aquatic food chains by providing nutrition to various fish species.

  • Scientists study the water flea to understand its impact on freshwater ecosystems.

Synonyms

cladoceran
vswater flea
  • Specialized
9.9

A small freshwater crustacean called a water flea

is the common name for those small crustaceans rather than the order
daphnia
vswater flea
  • Specialized
9.9

A tiny freshwater animal like a small water flea that swims with short quick movements

is the general name for such tiny crustaceans rather than one genus

Surface Forms

water flea singular
water fleas plural

Morphology

water + flea

The compound 'water flea' transparently signals a small creature associated with water: a B1 learner who knows 'water' and 'flea' would reasonably infer it denotes a tiny aquatic arthropod. However, the exact biological status (it is a crustacean, not a true flea) is not predictable from the constituents, so the relation is only partially compositional.

Etymology

The noun water flea may come from the tiny creature's look and movement. One popular idea says people named it because this very small freshwater animal jumps or flicks through the water like a flea, so the words water and flea make a clear image that explains the name.