#platyhelminthes

[teeterarting]

oh worm?

[patheticmosasaur1]

today's invertebrate..............temnosewellia minor

look at these cute little fellows! they're like tiny disembodied hands! and they have the cutest crayfish-related job in the world too! wanna know what it is?

what's that?? you don't want to? fine then. I didn't want to tell you anyway

glorpiness rating: the shloog is coming

source

[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

[crochetcarriecreations]

Another flatworm, but MOAR COLOURS and MOAR WIBBLY. I enjoy hyperbolic surfaces and how easy they are to make with crochet, and flatworms give the delightful opportunity for such fun wibbly shapes to also be A Guy. This was theoretically based on the Hancock's flatworm, but I took creative liberty with the colours and also there are several other similar-looking species to it, so in the end who knows.

It took a bit of nonsense and experimentation to get the colour borders looking neat on both the top and bottom, but worth the effort I think.

There will likely be more flatworms coming! There are so many pretty species of them to get inspired by.

~~~

my commissions are open - see my pinned post for more info

[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)

[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.

[gaystropod]

What if guy was worm?