Pseudoceros reticulatus

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Pseudoceros reticulatus
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Rhabditophora
Order: Polycladida
Suborder: Cotylea
Family: Pseudocerotidae
Genus: Pseudoceros
Species:
P. reticulatus
Binomial name
Pseudoceros reticulatus
(Yeri & Kaburaki, 1918)

Psedoceros reticulatus (commonly known as the mottled flatworm) is a hermaphroditic marine flatworm species that belongs to the Pseudocerotidae family. [1] [2]

Contents

Size

On average, the flatworm is 1.4 in (3.6 cm) long and 0.8 in (2.0 cm) wide. [1]

Habitat and Distribution

The flatworm can be found in the seabed of tropical oceans such as the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. [1]

Reproduction

As a hermaphrodite, the mottled flatworm reproduces by laying eggs. [1]

Diet

The primary diet of the flatworm consists of dead bodies on the sea floor and smaller animals. [1]

Related Research Articles

Flatworm Phylum of soft-bodied invertebrates known as flatworms

The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates. Unlike other bilaterians, they are acoelomates, and have no specialized circulatory and respiratory organs, which restricts them to having flattened shapes that allow oxygen and nutrients to pass through their bodies by diffusion. The digestive cavity has only one opening for both ingestion and egestion ; as a result, the food cannot be processed continuously.

Nemertea Phylum of invertebrates, ribbon worms

Nemertea is a phylum of invertebrate animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms. Alternative names for the phylum have included Nemertini, Nemertinea and Rhynchocoela. Most are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many have patterns of yellow, orange, red and green coloration. The foregut, stomach and intestine run a little below the midline of the body, the anus is at the tip of the tail, and the mouth is under the front. A little above the gut is the rhynchocoel, a cavity which mostly runs above the midline and ends a little short of the rear of the body. All species have a proboscis which lies in the rhynchocoel when inactive but everts to emerge just above the mouth and capture the animal's prey with venom. A highly extensible muscle in the back of the rhynchocoel pulls the proboscis in when an attack ends. A few species with stubby bodies filter feed and have suckers at the front and back ends, with which they attach to a host.

Orthonectida Phylum of marine invertebrate parasites

Orthonectida is a small phylum of poorly known parasites of marine invertebrates that are among the simplest of multi-cellular organisms. Members of this phylum are known as orthonectids.

Turbellaria Class of flatworms

The Turbellaria are one of the traditional sub-divisions of the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms), and include all the sub-groups that are not exclusively parasitic. There are about 4,500 species, which range from 1 mm (0.039 in) to large freshwater forms more than 500 mm (20 in) long or terrestrial species like Bipalium kewense which can reach 600 mm (24 in) in length. All the larger forms are flat with ribbon-like or leaf-like shapes, since their lack of respiratory and circulatory systems means that they have to rely on diffusion for internal transport of metabolites. However, many of the smaller forms are round in cross section. Most are predators, and all live in water or in moist terrestrial environments. Most forms reproduce sexually and with few exceptions all are simultaneous hermaphrodites.

Monogenea Class of ectoparasitic flatworms

Monogeneans are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive structures.

Acoelomorpha Phylum of marine, flatworm-like animals

Acoelomorpha is a subphylum of very simple and small soft-bodied animals with planula-like features which live in marine or brackish waters. They usually live between grains of sediment, swimming as plankton, or crawling on other organisms, such as algae and corals. With the exception of two acoel freshwater species, all known Acoelomorphs are marine.

Mottled grouper Species of fish

The mottled grouper is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

<i>Bipalium</i> Genus of flatworms

Bipalium is a genus of large predatory land planarians. They are often loosely called "hammerhead worms" or "broadhead planarians" because of the distinctive shape of their head region. Land planarians are unique in that they possess a "creeping sole" on their ventral side. Several species are considered as invasive to the United States and to Europe. Some studies have begun the investigation of the evolutionary ecology of these invasive planarians.

Cestoda Class of flatworms

Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of many similar units known as proglottids - essentially packages of eggs which are regularly shed into the environment to infect other organisms. Species of the other subclass, Cestodaria, are mainly fish parasites.

<i>Gomphosus varius</i> Species of fish

The bird wrasse, Gomphosus varius, is a species of the wrasse family.

Mirrorwing flyingfish Species of fish

The mirrorwing flyingfish is a flying fish of the family Exocoetidae. It was first described by the French zoologist, Achille Valenciennes in a 22-volume work titled Histoire naturelle des poissons, which was a collaboration with Georges Cuvier.

Dolichomacrostomidae Family of flatworms

The Dolichomacrostomidae are a family of small basal free-living flatworms, and members of the marine, but also brackish, meiobenthos. The name was coined by Reinhard M. Rieger (1971), who designated the Dolichomacrostomidae as a family within the taxon Macrostomida. There are currently about 40 named species in this family.

Macrostomidae Family of flatworms

The Macrostomidae are a family of small basal free-living flatworms, and members of the marine, brackish, freshwater meiobenthos. There are currently about 180 named species in this family.

Mottled skate Species of cartilaginous fish

The mottled skate is a species of skate in the family Rajidae. An inhabitant of shallow coastal waters, it is found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean off Korea, Japan, and China. This species grows to 1.12 m (3.7 ft) long and has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc with a long snout. It is characterized by a covering of prickles above and below its snout, but not elsewhere on its body, and a dark ring in the middle of each "wing".

<i>Pseudobiceros bedfordi</i> Species of flatworm


Pseudobiceros bedfordi, is a species of flatworm in the family Pseudocerotidae.

<i>Pseudoceros lindae</i> Species of flatworm

Pseudoceros lindae, common name Linda's flatworm, is a marine Flatworm species that belongs to the Pseudocerotidae family.

<i>Thysanozoon nigropapillosum</i> Species of flatworm

Thysanozoon nigropapillosum is a species of polyclad flatworms belonging to the family Pseudocerotidae. Some common names include gold-speckled flatworm, marine flatworm, yellow papillae flatworm, yellow-spotted flatworm, and yellow-spotted polyclad flatworm.

<i>Trachurus lathami</i> Species of fish

Trachurus lathami is a species of fish in the family Carangidae and the genus Trachurus, the jack mackerels. Common names include rough scad and horse mackerel in English, as well as chinchard frappeur (French), chicharro garretón (Spanish), jurel, and carapau, garaçuma, surel, and xixarro. It is native to parts of the western Atlantic Ocean, including seas off the eastern coasts of North and South America and the Gulf of Mexico.

<i>Xenoturbella bocki</i> A species of bilaterians with a simple body plan

Xenoturbella bocki is a marine benthic worm-like species from the genus Xenoturbella. It is found in saltwater sea floor habitats off the coast of Europe, predominantly Sweden. It was the first species in the genus discovered. Initially it was collected by Swedish zoologist Sixten Bock in 1915, and described in 1949 by Swedish zoologist Einar Westblad. The unusual digestive structure of this species, in which a single opening is used to eat food and excrete waste, has led to considerable study and controversy as to its classification. It is a bottom-dwelling, burrowing carnivore that eats mollusks.

<i>Prostheceraeus vittatus</i> Species of flatworm

Prostheceraeus vittatus, the candy striped flatworm, is a species of marine polyclad flatworm in the family Euryleptidae. It is found in Western Europe, including on the western coasts of the British Isles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Burnie, David (1998). The DK Nature Encyclopedia. New York: DK Publishing, Inc. pp.  27. ISBN   0-7894-3411-3.
  2. Tyler S. Artois T., Schilling S., Hooge M. & Bush L.F. (eds). (2019). WoRMS Turbellarians: World List of turbellarian worms (Acoelomorpha, Catenulida, Rhabditophora) (version 2019-03-05). In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2019 Annual Checklist (Roskov Y., Ower G., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds.). Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/2019. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-884X.