#platyhelminthes

[crevicedwelling]

hammerhead flatworms (Bipaliinae) are in my estimation among the most beautiful terrestrial animals, often sporting bright colors and striking patterns that advertise their toxicity.

bipaliines feed on either worms or land gastropods, tracking the slime trails of prey with their highly sensitive spade- or crescent-shaped head plate.

Southeast Asia is a hotspot for bipaliine diversity, and at least six species can be found in Singapore, all of which I managed to encounter this summer!

[herpsandbirds]

Can we get some flat fucks for a belated flat fuck friday?

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

THAT HE GAVE THEM

FLAT FUCK FRIDAY!!!

marine flatworm (Pseudobiceros gloriosus), family Pseudocerotidae, order Polycladida, Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

photograph by Jens Petersen

Meet the Penis-Fencing Flatworm  

from The Mating Game | BBC Earth

“Each reveals its two-pronged penis” 😳 Things you didn’t expect to hear Sir David Attenborough say…

via:  BBC Earth

 Pseudoceros dimidiatus, family Pseudocerotidae, order Polycladida, North Horn, Osprey Reef, Coral Sea

photograph by Richard Ling

Blue Pseudoceros Flatworm, Pseudoceros liparus, family Pseudocerotidae, order Polycladida,

photograph by Steve Childs

[patheticmosasaur1]

today's invertebrate..................transversotrema hafniensis (cercaria)

a little guy! a shmoooplefloops even. a wee phlibaboo perhaps. a wungus too if you will

and he plays the tiniest string instrument I have ever seen. I can't even tell what it is simply because of how inconceivably small it is!

it sounds like what you'd get if you poured a big bucket of water in a cave, but it also sounds almost like a mucus net flopping in the wind, if said wind was pink and made of heavy smoke and flowers. it's just incomprehensible!

glorpiness rating: so glorp 🥺

source (researchgate) I cropped the image a bit, just to focus more on the cercaria I guess

creative commons? idk

also here's what the adult looks like (same pic)

kinda looks like an alien mothership to me, especially with the illustration on the research paper above

[great-and-small]

do you like platyhelminths? :) flatworms are some of my favorite animals, particularly planarians (<33) and tapeworms. i know they really scare some people but i adore them and think they're really underappreciated!

I love platyhelminthes! Totally underrated group of critters. Fun fact the word “Platyhelminthes” can be rearranged into “Lethal Penis Myth” (I have a thing for anagrams and was bored in marine bio once).

I love how much balls to the wall insanity is present in the phylum. They really just do whatever the hell they want and it rules. Here are my top five crazy platyhelminthes behaviors

1. The tapeworm that somehow triples the lifespan of an ant in order to facilitate its own life cycle.

2. The marine flatworms that engage in penis fencing to decide who has to carry the offspring.

3. The tapeworm with such a complex life cycle that it is capable of influencing the brains of two wildly different host species (crustacean copepods and bony fish).

4. The fluke that turns a snail’s eyes into pulsating caterpillar-like sacs for a bird to eat.

5. The tapeworms that are being studied for their immunomodulatory properties that could someday lead to treatments for everything from colitis to arthritis.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Do you ever wish you could just bypass the complicated process of eating, and just send food directly to your stomach? Well that's exactly what some species of flatworm do! Many members of the group Turbellaria have their mouth along their underside, and when they find prey they will turn their pharynx inside out to attach to their victims. The pharynx is linked directly to the stomach and guts, so there's no need for the hassle of chewing or swallowing!

(Image: Bedford's flatworm (Pseudobiceros bedfordi) by Jan Derk)

[snototter]

Microplana scharffi, a land planarian, in Santa Clara County, California, USA

by Robin Gwen Agarwal

[mychemicalanimalia]

Early Sunsets Over Monroeville - Green-Banded Broodsack (Leucochloridium paradoxum)

green-banded broodsacks are parasitic flatworms, and their intermediate hosts are snails. the worms crawl into the snail's eyestalks and make them look like caterpillars to attract birds and continue their life cycle, with birds as their primary host. because the worms take over the snail's brain and control them, they turn the snail into a "zombie snail." early sunsets is inspired by dawn of the dead, which is about the zombie apocalypse. zombie song = zombie snails :p

please note that the picture included is of an infected snail, not the worm itself!

[gaystropod]

What if guy was worm?

[animalshowdown]

Phylum Round 1

Onychophora: Velvet Worms. This is the only phylum containing exclusively terrestrial members, although their ancestors can be traced back to the Cambrian shallow oceans. Onychophorans are ambush predators, moving with slow smooth steps to creep up on their prey. They have unique mucus glands on either side of their face which can spray jets of sticky slime, which effectively immobilizes their prey. Onychophorans have relatively complex brains, and some even live in social "packs" that live and hunt together. Many species in this phylum are ecologically vulnerable, threatened, or endangered.

Platyhelminthes: Flatworms. This phylum includes both colorful free-living members and more modest parasitic members. Free-living worms can be found in marine, freshwater, and even terrestrial environments. All flatworms are, of course, dorsoventrally flattened so their whole bodies can access oxygen from the outside, as they have no specialized circulatory system. Some flatworms are of interest to research in tissue regeneration, as they have the remarkable ability to completely regenerate a new body from a cut piece. Many classes within Platyhelminthes are exclusively parasitic, including flukes, tapeworms, schistosomes, and others. Most flatworms are hermaphroditic, and some larger marine species practice a ritual known as "penis fencing" to determine which worm's eggs will be fertilized.

[tapeworm-loser]

Wormposting at this hour

[heartnosekid]

flatworm (platyhelminthes) | source

[herpsandbirds]

Oh, oh! Could we perhaps get some nice land planarians? I think people get very mean about them due to the invasive instances and forget how neat they are in their original contexts + how pretty the endemic species are. Love the blog, thank you!

ARE YOU READY TO GET FLAT AND SLIMY?!?!?

Love you too kitten.

A colorful terrestrial planarians (species unidentified), family Geoplanidae, Amazon basin of Peru

photo by Dick Bartlett 

Three New Species of Terrestrial Planarians in the genus Cratera (Platyhelminthes, Continenticola) from Araucaria Forests of  Southern Brazil

Read more: Nova Taxa - Species New to Science

Toxic Land Planarians (Bipalium sp.) mating, family Geoplanidae, Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia

photograph by Bernard DuPont | Flickr

[patheticmosasaur1]

today's invertebrate.................rhynchodemus bromelicola

she has a little snoot that she uses to smell and poke things, which is her primary way of sensing the world! it often gets a little uncomfortable (imagine being repeatedly touched by a wet noodle) but nobody gets mad at her because we all know that most of the time she can't see what she's touching. her eyes are a bit limited after all......

glorpiness rating: a worm???? om the string??? boioioioioioioing

photographed by thomas_oswald. link to original photos (iNaturalist)

[eelaphos]

Have some flatworms and a nice day

[nimalings]

#076: Pterobyon

Have you ever wanted to know what powered flight feels like? Regardless of your body plan, this little guy can help! Pterobyons can attach to any creature, giving them full control over a pair of wings so they can fly to their heart's content! They only ask for some nutrients and energy in exchange! So make sure to eat well before and after every flight session! They come in many colors and sizes, so you can find one that suits you the best!

Inspired by flatworms a dreams where I can summon bird wings on demand!

Had a lot of fun pairing it with others!

[brella-boi]

Day 16: Fuchsia Flatform