Pseudoceros dimidiatus

Pseudoceros dimidiatus
Divided flatworm
Pseudoceros dimidiatus with a zebra pattern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Turbellaria
Order: Polycladida
Family: Pseudocerotidae
Genus: Pseudoceros
Species: P. dimidiatus
Binomial name
Pseudoceros dimidiatus
von Graff in Kent, 1893

Pseudoceros dimidiatus, the divided flatworm or tiger flatworm, is a species of flatworm in the genus Pseudoceros, belonging to the family Pseudocerotidae.

Description

Pseudoceros dimidiatus grows to be up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in). The body is elongated and oval, with a velvety dorsal surface, a grey-black ventral side and quite short pseudo tentacles formed by folds of the anterior margin.

All individuals of the divided flatworm have a black body with an orange margin. Common characters are also two wide longitudinal yellow-greenish stripes usually separated by a narrow black median line. However, this species of Pseudoceros is highly variable in color and in pattern, in terms of the arrangement and width of the various transverse stripes and of the width of the longitudinal stripes. It can take at least three different types of liveries.

The bright and contrasting colors serve as a warning for predators to not eat this inedible species. These flatworms feed exclusively on colonial ascidians. They are also cold blooded.

Distribution

This species is widespread in the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea to Australia and in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Habitat

The divided flatworm lives in coral reefs in the tropical waters.

Bibliography

Original text

References

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.