Taxonomy of Daphnia

The term "daphnia", although used frequently to represent water fleas, is actually the name of the genus Daphnia. When "daphnia" is not capitalized, it is being used to refer to water fleas, and when capitalized in context, it is being used as the genus name.

The following is the scientific classification of daphnia:

Kingdom: Animalia
  Phylum: Arthopoda
   Class: Branchiopoda
Order: Cladocera
  Family: Daphniidae
Genus: Daphnia


Although most commonly known Daphnia species are Daphnia magna and Daphnia pulex, there are many species of Daphnia, as indicated by the diagram on the right.

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