Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various water fleas of the genus Daphnia, some species of which are commonly used as food for aquarium fish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A genus of minute fresh-water cladocerous entomostracous crustaceans, the type of family Daphniidœ, and representative of the whole order Daphniacea or Cladocera. The species are among the many small crustaceans known as water-fleas. The best-known species is D. pulex, the “branch-horned” water-flea, which is a favorite microscopic object. The head is prolonged into a snout, and is provided with a single central compound eye; it is also furnished with antennæ which act as oars, propelling it through the water by a series of short springs or jerks. These animals are very abundant in many ponds and ditches; and as they assume a red color in summer, the swarms which abound in stagnant water impart to it the appearance of blood.
Wiktionary
- n. A water flea of the genus Daphnia.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A genus of the genus Daphnia.
WordNet 3.0
- n. minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae
Etymologies
- From the genus name. (Wiktionary)
- New Latin Daphnia, genus name, from Greek Daphnē, Daphne. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In the lab, Diamond recently showed a visitor how he exposed tiny water fleas called daphnia to titanium dioxide nanoparticles.”
“Try offering less dried foods, especially pellets, or offer some daphnia which is believed to act as a laxative.”
“I was involved with an after school science program where one group tested the effects on daphnia of the components of sports drinks.”
“Daphnia are used as "biomoitors"--if the daphnia start acting beserk, something is wrong with the water.”
“There were all kinds of tiny animals in there, water beetles and daphnia and so on and so forth.”
“I hardly spend time contemplating the daphnia I carelessly tossed into the compost today, and the daphnia left certainly do not spend any time pondering me.”
“So I pull out yards and yards of elodea, and along with it snails and daphnia and copepods and stentorians and paramecia.”
“So now one has the red silverfish-like shrimp, daphnia and small clams, and another has the anostracans.”
“Such studies typically find strong trophic cascades in aquatic environments, where big fish eat minnows, which eat the tiny algae-eating crustaceans called daphnia.”
“But if takes the same daphnia down the hall and exposes it to a lamp that mimics sunlight, it will die within hours.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘daphnia’.
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shells
testudinals
testudines, turtle, testudine, testudo, tortoise, scallop, triton, calipash, daphnia, carapace, gryphite, phragmacone and 62 more...
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Crustaceans
yabby, marron, gilgie, koonac, crayfish, crawfish, crawdad, crawdaddy, cray, koura, mudbug, parastacine and 69 more...
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