Collecting and photographing freshwater planaria (Polycelis coronate)

[Ecooper]

Hi all,

The photo below is of a freshwater planarian flatworm (Polycelis coronate) as it crawls along the surface of a submerged leaf. I posted this photo and a number of others on my blog tonight.

I have had a life-long fascination with planaria (I blame my sister, as I explain in my blog) and was delighted to find and collect some of these critters in a local stream last week. The white mass in the centre of tits body is its proboscis, through which it feeds; and if you look closely at its head you will see a large number of tiny black spots: those are eyespots.

Cheers,

EC

www.macrocritters.wordpress.com



planaria on leaf 2_filtered final copyright Ernie Cooper 2012 sm for post by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

 

[aNisip]

If you are interested in cytology, or just looking for something interesting to try, cut the planaria in half (from head to end) (vertically) (or you can cut it horizontally) and each half will form a new planaria...or if I just stop cutting it in half after the head (forming a Y)....it will turn into a two headed planaria........ www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/.../planaria/planaria_regen_activity.pdf