#flatworm

a little watercolor of a geoplanidae flatworm I painted a few years back, based on this lovely photoby@myfrogcroaked!

[ID: A watercolor painting of a geoplanidae flatworm, with visible pencil sketch beneath, as it wiggles across treebark covered in mint-green lichen. The flatworm is curled into a twisty L-shape, going from left to right. It’s left end is a super-saturated orangey-red and its right is a blue so dark its almost black, and a red-to-white stripe goes down the length of the worm.]

Phyllidia polkadotsa is a wonderfully named dorid nudibranch species found around Hawaii. It grows around 2.5cm long, and feeds on sponges.

Closely resembling Phyllidia polkadotsa is a species of flatworm in the Euryleptagenus. Mimicking nudibranchs is common in flatworms of the taxonomic order Polycladida, as nudibranchs are often toxic, so predators of the similarly coloured flatworm will stay away. Happy Flatworm Friday everyone!

Nudibranch photo source

Flatworm photo source