Flatworm Color Explosion! Off topic! A Panoply of Playhelminths!

Today, here in Washington DC, we have an overcast day with a rather dreary storm raining down on us..and a quick skim through the news is filled with all kinds of blah and bad news, Sequester is the buzz of the town.. so..meh.  What to do??

FLATWORM COLOR EXPLOSION!!!!!

Pseudoceros susanae, in the Maldives by Jim Anderson

A brief zoology lesson: Flatworms are members of the phylum Platyhelminthes. This is the group of worms which includes many parasitic forms, such as the tape worms and trematodes as well as several free-living species that live on land, in freshwater and in the ocean.

If you remember those funny arrow-headed ones that you could cut and via regeneration give it two or more heads? That was a flatworm!  Many, many species are found throughout the world.

Free living flatworms are mostly predatory-feeding on immovable animals, such as tunicates to other smaller animals and worms. There's a LOT of different species with many interesting biological stories! Some (go here) are mimics with nudibranchs! 

But most folks don't realize just how colorful and gorgeous they are in the tropics!  Here is a bunch....

Pseudoceros bifurcus from Kenya.

Photo by Jim Anderson

Another of the same species (P. bifurucs) from Singapore apparently feeding on some tunicates.

Photo by Wild Singapore

Pseudoceros laingensis from Straits of Johore

Photo by Arthur Anker

Sorry, this one didn't have a name.. Amazing to look at though... From French Polynesia.

Photo by Pauline Bosserelle

Another flatworm I don't have a name for.. but apparently from the Philippines

Photo by "Jason" aka Jasdivr

Another one without a name.. This one from Oahu, Hawaii!

Photo by Bill Stohler

Possibly Cycloporus sp. on its tunicate host/food (Didemnum molle) fr. Wori Bay, Sulawasi

Photo by Christian Loader

Pseudoceros susanae?  A beauty from the Maldives!

Photo by Chris Dow

Another stunning Pseudoceros susanae? from the Maldives

Photo by Philippe Guillaume

Purple flatworm! From Bali.

Photo by Ben Naden

Pseudobiceros bedfordi, the so-called "Persian carpet flatworm." This one from Dayang, Malaysia

Photo by Dyana Wu

A neat one with a different texture! A "papillose flatworm"  Thysanozoon/Acanthozoon? From Madang, Papua New Guinea.

Photo by Arthur Anker

Thysanozoon sp. from Panama.

Another gorgeous pic by Arthur Anker

Acanthozoon sp. from the Philippines

Photo by Eunice Khoo

and that's just the marine ones!  the land ones get even better! but I'll save those for another day....